N-Doped Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced N-Doped Mesoporous Carbon for Flue Gas Desulfurization

The carbon adsorbents used for flue gas desulfurization in a moving bed reactor often suffer from serious abrasion loss, which has significantly increased the operation cost and reduced the continuous operating period. Here, we present a novel approach to reinforcing N-doped mesoporous carbons (NMPCs) by adding a small amount of N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs). Compared to the undoped carbon nanotubes, the NCNTs exhibit better dispersibility in solvent and enhanced interface combination with NMPCs, which has efficiently enhanced the mechanical strength of the NCNT-NMPC composite materials. The largest fracturing strength and the best attrition resistance are obtained at a NCNT addition of 0.1 wt %. Meanwhile, the NCNT-NMPC composite delivers an average SO 2 adsorption capacity of 21.2 mg/g, which is 84% higher than the undoped mesoporous carbon. Our results indicate that the defective sites introduced by N doping can help to improve the interface combination between different carbon species, and that the as-prepared NCNT-NMPC composite material is a promising high performance absorbent for flue gas desulfurization.