A study on carbon dioxide adsorption with deep eutectic solvent functionalized activated carbon

Abstract

Activated carbon (AC) from Sea Mango (Cerberra Odollam) has been successfully produced through chemical activation process using phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) as activating agents and physical activation which is thermal activation. The sample was impregnated with phosphoric acid at the impregnation ratio of precursor to activant as 1:2 and followed by thermal activation at 500 °C with different flowing gas of nitrogen (N₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) for duration of 2 hours. The activated carbons were modified with Deep Eutectic Solvent of choline chloride and glycerol. The samples were denoted as AC-CO₂, AC-N₂, AC-CO₂-D, and AC-N₂-D. The effect of physical and chemical activation on BET surface area, surface morphology and total ash content were studied. The result showed that increasing the activation temperature from 200°C to 500°C caused a decrease in the ash content percentage while the BET surface area is increased, progressively. The highest BET surface areas of the activated carbon obtained by using 50% concentration of phosphoric acid are 880.39m2/g and 852.06m2/g.. FTIR analysis showed the aliphatic amines and aromatics groups are present on the surfaces of all AC beds. The carbon dioxide adsorption capacity of AC was determined by breakthrough time curve. The best performance in CO₂ adsorption took longer time before begin to breakthroughout was exhibited by AC-CO₂ and AC-N₂ which are 920s and 910s respectively.