Ammonia, NH3, is a key chemical widely used in chemical industries and a toxic pollutant that impacts human health. Thus, there is a need for the development of effective adsorbents with high uptake capacities to adsorb NH3. An adsorbent with a high surface area and a small pore size is generally preferred in order to have a high capacity for the removal of NH3. The use inorganic nanoporous materials as gas adsorbents has increased substantially and emerged as an alternative to zeolite and activated carbon. Herein, mesoporous alumina (MA) was prepared and used as an NH3 adsorbent. MA showed good pore properties such as a uniform pore size and interlinked pore system, when compared to commercial adsorbents (activated carbon, zeolite, and silica powder). MA has free hydroxyl groups, serving as useful adsorption sites for NH3. In an adsorption isotherm test, MA exhibited 4.7-6.5 times higher uptake capacities for NH3 than commercial adsorbents. Although the larger surface areas of adsorbents are important features of ideal adsorbents, a regular and interlinked adsorbent pore system was found to be a more crucial factor to adsorb NH3.

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