Acid/Base Treatment of Monolithic Activated Carbon for Coating Silver with Tunable Morphology

Silver coatings on the exterior surface of monolithic activated carbon（MAC） with different morphology were prepared by directly immersing MAC into [Ag（NH3）2]NO3 solution. Acid and base treatments were employed to modify the surface oxygenic groups of MAC, respectively. The MACs＇ Brunauer-EmmettTeller（BET） surface area, surface groups, and silver coating morphology were characterized by N2 adsorption, elemental analysis（EA）, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）, and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, respectively. The coating morphology was found to be closely related to the surface area and surface functional groups of MAC. For a raw MAC which contained a variety of oxygenic groups, HNO3 treatment enhanced the relative amount of highly oxidized groups such as carboxyl and carbonates, which disfavored the deposition of silver particles. By contrast, Na OH treatment significantly improved the amount of carbonyl groups, which in turn improved the deposition amount of silver. Importantly, lamella silver was produced on raw MAC while Na OH treatment resulted in granular particles because of the capping effect of carbonyl groups. At appropriate [Ag（NH3）2]NO3 concentrations, silver nanoparticles smaller than 100 nm were homogeneously dispersed on Na OH-treated MAC. The successful tuning of the size and morphology of silver coatings on MAC is promising for novel applications in air purification and for antibacterial or aesthetic purposes.

Adsorption and desorption of SO_2, NO and chlorobenzene on activated carbon

Activated carbon（AC） is very effective for multi-pollutant removal; however, the complicated components in flue gas can influence each other＇s adsorption. A series of adsorption experiments for multicomponents, including SO_2, NO, chlorobenzene and H2 O,on AC were performed in a fixed-bed reactor. For single-component adsorption, the adsorption amount for chlorobenzene was larger than for SO_2 and NO on the AC. In the multi-component atmosphere, the adsorption amount decreased by 27.6% for chlorobenzene and decreased by 95.6% for NO, whereas it increased by a factor of two for SO_2,demonstrating that a complex atmosphere is unfavorable for chlorobenzene adsorption and inhibits NO adsorption. In contrast, it is very beneficial for SO_2 adsorption. The temperature-programmed desorption（TPD） results indicated that the binding strength between the gas adsorbates and the AC follows the order of SO_2〉 chlorobenzene 〉 NO. The adsorption amount is independent of the binding strength. The presence of H2 O enhanced the component effects, while it weakened the binding force between the gas adsorbates and the AC. AC oxygen functional groups were analyzed using TPD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） measurements. The results reveal the reason why the chlorobenzene adsorption is less affected by the presence of other components. Lactone groups partly transform into carbonyl and quinone groups after chlorobenzene desorption. The chlorobenzene adsorption increases the number of C = O groups, which explains the positive effect of chlorobenzene on SO_2 adsorption and the strong NO adsorption.

Regeneration performance and carbon consumption of semi-coke and activated coke for SO_2 and NO removal

To decrease the operating cost of flue gas purification technologies based on carbon-based materials, the adsorption and regeneration performance of low-price semi-coke and activated coke were compared for SO2 and NO removal in a simulated flue gas. The functional groups of the two adsorbents before and after regeneration were characterized by a Fourier transform infrared（FTIR） spectrometer, and were quantitatively assessed using temperature programmed desorption（TPD） coupled with FTIR and acid–base titration. The results show that semi-coke had higher adsorption capacity（16.2% for SO2 and 38.6% for NO） than activated coke because of its higher content of basic functional groups and lactones. After regeneration, the adsorption performance of semi-coke decreased because the number of active functional groups decreased and the micropores increased. Semi-coke had better regeneration performance than activated coke. Semi-coke had a larger SO2 recovery of 7.2% and smaller carbon consumption of 12% compared to activated coke. The semi-coke carbon-based adsorbent could be regenerated at lower temperatures to depress the carbon consumption, because the SO2 recovery was only reduced a small amount.