Molecules (Feb 2022)

The Effect of the Modification of Carbon Spheres with ZnCl<sub>2</sub> on the Adsorption Properties towards CO<sub>2</sub>

  • Iwona Pełech,
  • Piotr Staciwa,
  • Daniel Sibera,
  • Ewelina Kusiak-Nejman,
  • Antoni W. Morawski,
  • Joanna Kapica-Kozar,
  • Urszula Narkiewicz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27041387
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 4
p. 1387

Abstract

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Zinc chloride and potassium oxalate are often applied as activating agents for carbon materials. In this work, we present the preparation of ZnO/carbon spheres composites using resorcinol-formaldehyde resin as a carbon source in a solvothermal reactor heated with microwaves. Zinc chloride as a zinc oxide source and potassium oxalate as an activating agent were applied. The effect of their addition and preparation conditions on the adsorption properties towards carbon dioxide at 0 °C and 25 °C were investigated. Additionally, for all tested sorbents, the CO2 sorption tests at 40 °C, carried out utilizing a thermobalance, confirmed the trend of sorption capacity measured at 0 and 25 °C. Furthermore, the sample activated using potassium oxalate and modified using zinc chloride (a carbon-to-zinc ratio equal to 10:1) displayed not only a high CO2 adsorption capacity (2.69 mmol CO2/g at 40 °C) but also exhibited a stable performance during the consecutive multicycle adsorption–desorption process.

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