Characteristics and mechanism of low-temperature NO adsorption by activated carbon

Activated carbon is widely used to purify flue gas in industries like steel and metallurgy, but its ability to adsorb NOx at medium to low flue gas temperatures is limited. This study conducted adsorption experiments in different atmospheres within −20 to 30 °C. As the temperature decreased from 30 °C to −20 °C, the NOx adsorption amount was increased by 4.61 times. Lowering temperature greatly promoted NOx adsorption. Temperature-programmed desorption experiments determined the amount of NOx adsorbed through physical adsorption and chemical adsorption. As the temperature decreased from 30 °C to −20 °C, the proportion of physically adsorbed NOx to total adsorption amount increased from 2.9 % to 45.5 %, and the proportion of physically adsorbed NO2 to total physical adsorption amount increased from 0 to71.6 %. Lowering the temperature benefited NO oxidation and NO2′s adsorption on activated carbon. Desorption curves of chemically adsorbed NOx indicated that a decrease in temperature does not affect the chemical adsorption pathways of NOx. Physical adsorption of NOx was studied by density functional theory calculations. NO2 has much stronger physical adsorption than NO and can physically adsorb near saturated carbon atoms, carbonyl groups, ether groups, hydroxyl groups, and lactone groups. At low temperatures, NO is first oxidized to NO2 on activated carbon and then NO2 is adsorbed through both physical and chemical pathways. Modifying the surface of activated carbon to increase hydroxyl, ether, and lactone groups can help enhance its performance of low-temperature NOx adsorption.