Insight into the significant roles of microstructures and functional groups on carbonaceous surfaces for acetone adsorption

Abstract

To understand the roles of pore structures and functional groups on acetone adsorption, activated carbons (ACs) with different properties were obtained by surface modification. XRD, SEM, TEM and nitrogen adsorption were used to identify the structural characteristics of the ACs, while TG-DTA, FTIR, XPS and Boehm titration were applied to analyse the surface chemistries. The microporous surface areas showed a positive linear correlation to the acetone adsorption amounts, and increasing the carboxylic groups could improve the uptake of strongly adsorbed acetone. HNO₃ modified AC (AC-N) was found to exhibit an excellent adsorption capacity of 5.49 mmol g⁻¹, which might be attributed to the developed microporous structures and abundant carboxylic groups. The desorption activation energies (E_d) of strongly adsorbed acetone on AC-N and AC were both determined to be 81.6 kJ mol⁻¹, indicating the same adsorption sites on different activated carbons, suspected to be carboxylic groups. The possible adsorption mechanism of acetone on carbonaceous surfaces was also proposed.