The formation of novel carbon/carbon composite by chemical vapor deposition: An efficient adsorbent for enhanced desulfurization performance

• New method was proposed for growth of carbon species on the biomass carbon support.
• The physical–chemical properties of prepared new composite are characterized.
• The formations of carbon species are only obtained on Ni particles randomly.
• The growth mechanism of composites was interpreted.
• The prepared samples exhibited the well performance on sulfur dioxide adsorption.

Carbon species were grown on surface of prepared Ni based biomass carbon to form a novel carbon/carbon composite by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methane without extra catalyst, which is different from the regular preparation method. Methane was adsorbed on the surface of metal Ni firstly, and then decomposed to elemental carbon via a sequence of free radical reactions. The produced carbon was dissolved into the metal catalyst. The CNTs are then formed by precipitation of carbon atoms on the surface of the catalyst. The physical–chemical properties of prepared new composite materials are characterized to illustrate the successful growth of carbon species on the porous carbon. The composite exhibited abundant pore structure and large surface area, and then was used as adsorbent for adsorption of sulfur dioxide. The sulfur capacity of the composites is 7.3 mg/g, which is higher than that of biomass carbon support with 2.2 mg/g. The results indicated that the prepared samples exhibited the well performance on sulfur dioxide adsorption.