This work focused on thermodynamic analysis of carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorption on a promising biochar as a CO2 adsorbent. The biochar was prepared by catalytic pyrolysis of cellulose material in ionic liquid at moderate temperature. The adsorption characteristics, such as adsorption capacity, interfacial potential, Gibbs free energy change, enthalpy change, entropy change, and internal energy change, influenced by adsorption temperature and gas pressure, were systematically investigated. The results indicated that CO2 adsorption on cellulose‐derived biochar was a spontaneous, physical, exothermic, and entropic decrement process, accompanied by adsorption capacity of 5.2 mmol/g and interfacial potential of −18.2 J/g at 273 K and 100 kPa. The process could be well described by adsorption potential theory. Then a quasi‐Gaussian distribution of site energy was verified for CO2 adsorption. The interfacial potential was found to be a monotropic function of the amount of CO2 adsorbed, and the latter was actually a differential of the former via adsorption potential. The positive temperature effect and negative pressure effect on negative Gibbs free energy change indicated that reducing adsorption temperature and increasing gas pressure were beneficial to CO2 uptake, accompanied by the increase of adsorption capacity and the reduction of interfacial energy, entropy, enthalpy, and internal energy. The strongest temperature effects on entropy change, enthalpy change, and internal energy change existed at given pressure or temperature. The pressure effect was stronger and more sensitive to pressure at lower adsorption pressure. More interestingly, the peak pressure or peak temperature with the strongest pressure effect possibly existed during CO2 adsorption.

With a purpose of extending the application of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) for gas adsorption, this paper aims to reveal the pore formation mechanism of a promising adsorbent for CO2 capture which was derived from the structural remodeling of β-CD by thermal activation. The pore structure and performance of the adsorbent were characterized by means of SEM, BET and CO2 adsorption. Then, the thermochemical characteristics during pore formation were systematically investigated by means of TG-DSC, in situ TG-FTIR/FTIR, in situ TG-MS/MS, EDS, XPS and DFT. The results show that the derived adsorbent exhibits an excellent porous structure for CO2 capture accompanied by an adsorption capacity of 4.2 mmol/g at 0 °C and 100 kPa. The porous structure is obtained by the structural remodeling such as dehydration polymerization with the prior locations such as hydroxyl bonded to C6 and ring-opening polymerization with the main locations (C4, C1, C5), accompanied by the release of those small molecules such as H2O, CO2 and C3H4. A large amount of new fine pores is formed at the third and fourth stage of the four-stage activation process. Particularly, more micropores are created at the fourth stage. This revealed that pore formation mechanism is beneficial to structural design of further thermal-treated graft/functionalization polymer derived from β-CD, potentially applicable for gas adsorption such as CO2 capture.

This study focused on demonstrating the intermolecular interactions between β-cyclodextrin and water, with the aim to better understand the transfer of small molecules to β-cyclodextrin.

The purpose of this work was to investigate the thermodynamic characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) adsorption on a promising nitrogen-doped biochar at constant temperature and isopiestic pressure. The biochar was prepared as a CO 2 adsorbent based on catalytic pyrolysis of pristine coconut shells using urea as the nitrogen source and moderate temperature ionic liquid as a catalyst.The results showed that CO 2 adsorption on the biochar was a spontaneous, dominantly physical, exothermic, and entropy decrement process that could be well described by the slip model and the dual-site Langmuir model. Those thermodynamic parameters, including interface potential, exhibited a series of interesting tendencies with the changes in adsorption temperature and pressure. Under the conditions of 273 K and 100 kPa, the adsorption capacity and the interface potential were 4.6 mmol/g and À16.7 J/g, respectively. And the site energy ranged from 2.57 to 5.13 kJ/mol in the test conditions, which became narrow with increasing temperature. The temperature exhibited positive effects on interface potential, enthalpy change, entropy change, enthalpy change, internal energy change but negative effects on adsorption capacity, Gibbs free energy change, and Helmholtz free energy change. Interestingly, the pressure exhibited the opposite effect trends. The peak pressure with maximum temperature effect at a given temperature and the peak temperature with maximum pressure effect at a given pressure were found to exist for some thermodynamic parameters. These exhibited a different but significantly beneficial perspective to understand the mass and energy transfer during CO 2 adsorption on the biochar at constant temperature and isopiestic pressure, which have rarely been reported before.