Development of carbon dioxide adsorbents using carbon materials prepared from coconut shell

Coconut shell, being a good carbon precursor and having a regular porous structure, was chosen for production of carbonic materials in this work. Metal doping on the coconut char was used to develop catalytic centers for hydrocarbon cracking and thereby obtain a product with good microporosity. Magnesium, calcium, cobalt, copper and nickel doping on the coconut char was done by soaking the coconut char in the aqueous solutions of the respective metal salt and further calcining. The characterization of the product samples was done by the measurement of surface area, adsorption capacity of CO2, N-2, CH4, and SEM analysis. The micro pore area obtained by using CO2 adsorption at 298 K was found to be > 400 m(2)/g for samples prepared from coconut char impregnated with metal. The adsorption capacity of magnesium-doped sample was found to be 98 mg/g, whereas that for a sample prepared from non-impregnated coconut char was 55 mg/g. SEM analysis was conducted to study the morphology and nature of the samples prepared.