Dynamic Adsorption and Desorption of Toluene on Carbon Nanotubes Grafted Activated Carbon Fibers

2013 ◽  
Vol 284-287 ◽  
pp. 72-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Chun Chiang ◽  
Wei Hsiang Lin

Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) are widely used adsorbents due to their small fiber diameter, uniform pore size distribution and rapid adsorption/desorption rate. In addition, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have received much attention recently because of their excellent mechanical and electrical properties and being candidates for adsorption. Thus, it should be highly interested as grafting CNTs onto ACFs to form a hybrid adsorbent. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the physicochemical properties of ACFs grafted with nitrogen-doped CNTs (CNs) and determine the adsorption and desorption performance of toluene vapor on this hybrid adsorbent. The chemical vapor deposition method was used for growth of CNs directly onto ACFs. The resulting materials were characterized by several techniques. Next, the adsorption breakthrough behaviors of toluene on the samples were measured in a continuous flow-type fixed-bed system. And then the temperature programmed desorption system was utilized to observe the desorption characteristics of toluene from the samples. Results show that the CNs have been grafted homogeneously onto the ACFs. The attachment of CNs on ACFs was believed to block part of the active surface area, causing the decrease in specific surface area and pore volume, but lead to the increase in microporosity. The adsorption of toluene on ACFs or the hybrid adsorbent was physical adsorption. At higher adsorption temperatures, the hybrid adsorbent could maintain high enough capacities of toluene and even exceed the performance of ACFs. Moreover, toluene could be desorbed completely from ACFs and the hybrid adsorbent up to 400 oC with the highest desorption efficiency at about 180 oC.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chun Chiang ◽  
Cheng-Yu Yeh ◽  
Chih-Hsien Weng

Polyacrylonitrile-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs), modified using potassium hydroxide (KOH) or tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), were investigated for carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorption, which is one of the promising alleviation approaches for global warming. The CO2 adsorption isotherms were measured, and the values of isosteric heat of adsorption were calculated. The results showed that the KOH-modified ACFs exhibited a great deal of pore volume, and a specific surface area of 1565 m2/g was obtained. KOH activation made nitrogen atoms easily able to escape from the surface of ACFs. On the other hand, the surface area and pore volume of ACFs modified with TEPA were significantly reduced, which can be attributed to the closing or blocking of micropores by the N-groups. The CO2 adsorption on the ACF samples was via exothermic reactions and was a type of physical adsorption, where the CO2 adsorption occurred on heterogeneous surfaces. The CO2 uptakes at 1 atm and 25 °C on KOH-activated ACFs reached 2.74 mmole/g. This study observed that microporosity and surface oxygen functionalities were highly associated with the CO2 uptake, implying the existence of O-C coordination, accompanied with physical adsorption. Well cyclability of the adsorbents for CO2 adsorption was observed, with a performance decay of less than 5% over up to ten adsorption-desorption cycles.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linjie Su ◽  
Bohong Li ◽  
Dongyu Zhao ◽  
Chuanli Qin ◽  
Zheng Jin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to prepare a new modified activated carbon fibers (ACFs) of high specific capacitance used for electrode material of supercapacitor. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the specific capacitance of ACF was significantly increased by using the phenolic resin microspheres and melamine as modifiers to prepare modified PAN-based activated carbon fibers (MACFs) via electrospinning, pre-oxidation and carbonization. The symmetrical supercapacitor (using MACF as electrode) and hybrid supercapacitor (using MACF and activated carbon as electrodes) were tested in term of electrochemical properties by cyclic voltammetry, AC impedance and cycle stability test. Findings It was found that the specific capacitance value of the modified fibers were increased to 167 Fg-1 by adding modifiers (i.e. 20 wt.% microspheres and 15 wt.% melamine) compared to that of unmodified fibers (86.17 Fg-1). Specific capacitance of modified electrode material had little degradation over 10,000 cycles. This result can be attributed to that the modifiers embedded into the fibers changed the original morphology and enhanced the specific surface area of the fibers. Originality/value The modified ACFs in our study had high specific surface area and significantly high specific capacitance, which can be applied as efficient and environmental absorbent, and advanced electrode material of supercapacitor.


1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1040-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Kuriyama ◽  
M.S. Dresselhaus

The conductivity and photoconductivity are measured on a high-surface-area disordered carbon material, i.e., activated carbon fibers, to investigate their electronic properties. This material is a highly disordered carbon derived from a phenolic precursor, having a huge specific surface area of 1000–2000 m2/g. Our preliminary thermopower measurements show that the dominant carriers are holes at room temperature. The x-ray diffraction pattern reveals that the microstructure is amorphous-like with Lc ≃ 10 Å. The intrinsic electrical conductivity, on the order of 20 S/cm at room temperature, increases by a factor of several with increasing temperature in the range 30–290 K. In contrast, the photoconductivity in vacuum decreases with increasing temperature. The magnitude of the photoconductive signal was reduced by a factor of ten when the sample was exposed to air. The recombination kinetics changes from a monomolecular process at room temperature to a bimolecular process at low temperatures, indicative of an increase in the photocarrier density at low temperatures. The high density of localized states, which limits the motion of carriers and results in a slow recombination process, is responsible for the observed photoconductivity.


2005 ◽  
Vol 876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Crocker ◽  
Uschi M. Graham ◽  
Rolando Gonzalez ◽  
Erin Morris ◽  
Gary Jacobs ◽  
...  

AbstractHigh surface area cerium oxide has been prepared using a carbon templating method. Impregnation of a highly mesoporous activated carbon (Darco KB-B) with an aqueous solution of cerium nitrate, followed by carbon burn off, afforded ceria with surface area of up to 148 m2/g. According to thermogravimetric studies, ceria formation proceeds via decomposition of cerium nitrate at ca. 410 K; oxidation of the carbon template commences at the same temperature, being facilitated by the release of NO2 from the Ce compound. Use of activated carbon fibers (ACFs) as template was found to provide a simple route to fibrous cerium oxide. The lower surface areas (3 - 59 m2/g) of the resulting ceria fibers reflect the largely microporous nature of the ACFs; evidently the Ce nitrate solution is unable to penetrate their micropores. Consequently, the surface area of the ceria product is found to increase with increasing mesoporosity of the ACF template. Electron microscopy reveals that the ceria fibers are composed of highly crystalline primary particles of 5-10 nm diameter; further, the fibers display a number of interesting morphological features at the macro- and nano-scales.


2004 ◽  
Vol 449-452 ◽  
pp. 217-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Jae Lee ◽  
Jae Hyung Kim ◽  
Jang Soon Kim ◽  
Dong Bok Lee ◽  
Jae Chun Lee ◽  
...  

Activated carbon fibers were prepared from stabilized PAN-based fibers by chemical activation using potassium hydroxide at different concentration. The experimental data showed variations in specific surface area, microstructure by the activated carbon fibers. Specific surface area of about 2545 m2/g was obtained in the KOH/stabilized PAN-based fiber ratio of 1:1 at 800°. An abrupt reduction of specific surface area was observed in the experiments with the ratio of 3:1 of OH/stabilized PAN-based fiber, being dissimilar with the result of KOH/fiber ratios of 1:1 and 2:1 in the similar experiments. The high concentration of KOH led to the destruction of micropore walls instead of forming mesopores.


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