Description of chemically and thermally treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes using sequential decomposition of adsorption isotherms

Abstract

The effect of wet acid oxidation by means of sulfuric/nitric acid mixtures, and high-temperature treatment of commercial arc-discharge synthesized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was studied. In order to analyze the adsorption capacities of differently treated MWCNTs, we employed a multistep method that considers separately different pressure ranges (zones) on the experimentally obtained isotherms. The method is based on simple gas isotherm measurements (N2, CO2, CH4, etc.). Low pressure ranges can be described using Dubinin's model, while high pressure regimes can be fitted using different models such as BET multilayer and Freundlich equations. This analysis allows to elucidate how different substrate treatments (chemical and thermal) can affect the adsorbate-adsorbent interactions; moreover, theoretical description of adsorbate-adsorbate interactions can be improved if a combination of adsorption mechanisms are used instead of a unique model. The results hereby presented also show that, while MWCNTs are a promising material for storage applications, gas separation applications should carefully consider the effect of wide nanotube size distribution present on samples after activation procedures.