CO2 Adsorption capacity of activated N-doping porous carbons prepared from graphite nanofibers/polypyrrole

Abstract

In this study, N-doping porous carbons (NPCs) with a 3D aperiodic hierarchical and layered structure were prepared by the sodium hydride (NaOH) activation of graphite nanofibers (GNFs)/polypyrrole (PPY) composites. The effects of the N groups and structural features on the CO2 adsorption capacity of NPCs were investigated by N2 full isotherms, XRD, SEM, and TEM. The CO2 adsorption capacity was measured by the CO 2 isothermal adsorption at 25°C and 1 atm. It was found that GNFs served as a substrate and layered graphitic carbons were formed by the thermal annealing of PPY. The content of N groups and textural properties of NPCs were enhanced with increasing activation temperature, resulting in improved CO 2 adsorption capacity. The CO2 adsorption isotherms showed that GPK-600 exhibited the best CO2 adsorption capacity of 88.8 mg/g when the activation temperature was 600°C. The result indicates that the pore size and its distribution of NPCs lead to feasible contact CO2, and the presence of high N groups on the NPCs could have resulted in further stabilization of the surface effect. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.