NO removal by electrospun porous carbon nanofibers at room temperature

Porous carbon nanofibers (PCNFs) were fabricated by stabilization, carbonization and activation with steam after electrospinning the polymer solution of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The nitrogen adsorption and desorption at 77 K showed that PAN-based PCNFs are highly microporous. Removal of NO with PCNFs at room temperature was investigated. The ratio of NO removed by PCNFs is higher than 60% when the inlet NO concentration was 20 ppm with 0.10 g of sample, and NOx (NO + NO2) cannot be detected when the inlet NO concentration was 2 ppm within 24 h. The mechanism sequence is supposed to be NO adsorption, catalytic oxidation to NO2 and part reduction to N2 by PCNFs due to greater carbon surface area and a higher quantity of nitrogen species. Thus, PCNFs would be effective for purging low concentration NOx at room temperature.