Nitrogen and Oxygen Co-doped Porous Carbon Fabric for Efficient Removal of Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde can pose a huge threat to human health due to its' carcinogenic effect. Carbon materials as adsorbents are widely applied to remove formaldehyde hazards. However, most carbon materials with disadvantages of the limited number of surface functional groups and the lack of suitable pore structure suffer from low adsorption rate for the adsorptive removal of formaldehyde. To improve the adsorption capability, oxygen (O) and nitrogen (N) elements co-doped porous viscose-based activated carbon fiber (N-O-ACF) was prepared via oxidation-hydrothermal treatment. First of all, the O atom can be introduced into ACF through chemical oxidation. Then, with the help of the O atom bridging effect, N atoms can be efficiently incorporated into ACF, and the content of the N element is as high as 7.13 wt.%. Thus, an improved adsorption performance of N-O-ACF for formaldehyde removal was achieved with the support of the synergistic effect of N and O elements. The adsorption capacity of N-O-ACF for removing formaldehyde increased up to 226 mg g(-1) while only 161.5 mg g(-1) was obtained for original ACF. The excellent formaldehyde adsorption capacity indicates that N-O-ACF may be a promising adsorbent in the field of indoor air purification.

Automated summary

Formaldehyde poses a significant threat to human health due to its carcinogenic effect. Carbon materials are widely used to remove formaldehyde, but most suffer from low adsorption rate. In this study, oxygen and nitrogen co-doped activated carbon fiber was prepared and showed improved adsorption performance for formaldehyde removal. The N-O-ACF adsorbent may be promising in indoor air purification.