Structure Manipulation of Carbon Aerogels by Managing Solution Concentration of Precursor and Its Application for CO2 Capture

Pingping He,Xingchi Qian,Zhaoyang Fei,Qing Liu,Xu Qiao,Zhuxiu Zhang,Xian Chen,Jihai Tang,Mifen Cui

doi:10.3390/pr6040035

Abstract

A series of carbon aerogels were synthesized by polycondensation of resorcinol and formaldehyde, and their structure was adjusted by managing solution concentration of precursors. Carbon aerogels were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), N2 adsorption/desorption and scanning electron microscope (SEM) technologies. It was found that the pore structure and morphology of carbon aerogels can be efficiently manipulated by managing solution concentration. The relative micropore volume of carbon aerogels, defined by Vmicro/Vtol, first increased and then decreased with the increase of solution concentration, leading to the same trend of CO2 adsorption capacity. Specifically, the CA-45 (the solution concentration of precursors is 45 wt%) sample had the highest CO2 adsorption capacity (83.71 cm3/g) and the highest selectivity of CO2/N2 (53) at 1 bar and 0 °C.

Highlights

Global climate and eco-environment changes are largely caused by elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration mainly owing to the use of fossil fuels [1]
We prepared a series of carbon aerogels synthesized by polycondensation of resorcinol and formaldehyde by managing solution concentration
It was found that the pore structure and morphology of carbon aerogels were influenced by the solution concentration of their precursors

Summary

Introduction

Global climate and eco-environment changes are largely caused by elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration mainly owing to the use of fossil fuels [1]. Research on CO2 capture technologies has mainly been performed by using absorption [3], membrane separation [4], adsorption method [5], and so forth. In absorption, elevated equipment size and corrosion rate, the large energy penalty caused by the regeneration of absorbents are challenging for absorption, especially aqueous amine solutions [6]. Monoethanolamine (MEA) was one of the earliest alkanolamines used for carbon capture, which has a high reaction rate, good absorption capacity. The major drawbacks such as high energy penalties for regeneration, degradation in oxidizing environment, and corrosive effects limited its application

Methods

Results

Conclusion