RESUMEN
In addressing the environmental challenges posed by the accumulation of fly ash (FA), efforts have been geared towards its high-value utilization. By the use of high-iron FA as a raw material, a high-iron fly-ash-based Na-X molecular sieve was successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. We combined pretreatment methods such as high-temperature calcination, acid leaching and alkali fusion activation. The as-synthesized product was used for the adsorption of a low concentration of CO2, and the adsorption data were fitted by a physical model. The changes in iron content in pretreatment and molecular sieve synthesis were revealed by SEM-mapping, UV-Raman and UV-Vis. The results showed that the pretreatment process reduces the iron content from 32.3% to 13.3%, and converts the inactive phases to active phases, with n (SiO2/Al2O3) = 4.94. The activated product was transformed further to a Na-X molecular sieve using a hydrothermal method. The product has a single crystal phase and octahedral crystal structure. Its specific surface area was 646.634 m2 g-1, and micropores were distributed between 0.46 nm and 0.71 nm, with a mesoporous phase of 4.6 nm. When used to adsorb a low concentration of CO2, the Na-X molecular sieve has a high adsorption capacity of 3.70 mmol g-1, which reaches 95.11% that of the commercial Na-X molecular sieve. The adsorption breakthrough time and adsorption capacity decreased with an increase in temperature. The adsorption kinetics were consistent with the Bangham model for surface pore adsorption and Weber-Morris model for internal diffusion. During the synthesis process, iron was converted from highly dispersed iron oxide to four-coordinated framework iron. Thus, this paper paves a path for the high-quality transformation and utilization of high-iron fly-ash.
RESUMEN
Old corrugated containers-based cellulose and fly ash-based fresh wet silica gel were used as raw materials for in situ synthesis of a series of silica/cellulose aerogels in NaOH/urea solution. At a silicon to cellulose ratio of less than 2.5:1, the skeleton structure of the synthesized composite material was dominated by fibrils decorated with spherical silica nanoparticles. At a silicon to cellulose ratio of higher than 2.5:1, the skeleton structure of the composite material was dominated by spherical silica particles interspersed with cellulose. The synthesized composite material was applied to capture CO2 at ambient temperature and pressure. We observed that with increasing silicon content, the CO2 adsorption capacity of the composite material decreased (regardless of its dominant structure), while its selectivity for CO2/N2 increased. This work presents a facile method for the synthesis of adsorption material that has high capacity and selectivity for CO2.
RESUMEN
Old corrugated containers with low recyclability were used as raw materials to synthesize a series of aerogels with varying cellulose concentrations in NaOH/urea solution via a freeze-drying process. The resulting aerogels had a rich porous structure with specific surface areas in the range of 132.72-245.19 m2.g-1 and mesopore volumes in the range of 0.73-1.53 cm3.g-1, and were tested for CO2 sorption at ambient temperature and pressure, displaying excellent CO2 adsorption capacities in the range of 1.96-11.78 mmol.g-1. Furthermore, the CO2/N2 selectivity of aerogels decreased with decreasing specific surface area, which was mainly caused by the decrease in CO2 capture. In addition, the CO2 sorption capacity of the sample with 2% cellulose content, CA-2, exceeded the values reported so far for many other sorbents with higher specific surface areas, and showed reasonable cyclic stability for CO2 capture. Therefore, this adsorbent represents an attractive prospect for CO2 uptake at room temperature.
