title: Creation of active sites by impregnation of carbon fibers: application to the fixation of hydrogen sulfide.
abstract: Activated carbon fibers, which exhibit high specific area and numerous active surface sites, constitute very powerful adsorbents and are widely used in filtration to eliminate pollutants from liquid or gaseous effluents. The fibers studied in this work are devoted to the filtration of gaseous effluent containing very small amounts (few vpm) of hydrogen sulfide. Preliminary experiments evidenced that these fibers weakly adsorb hydrogen sulfide. To improve their fixation capacity toward H(2)S the activated fibers are impregnated in an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide. The impregnation treatment usually takes place before activation but in this work it occurs at room temperature after activation of the fibers. A further thermal treatment is performed to increase the efficiency of the system. The overall treatment leads to the creation of basic sites showing a great activity for H(2)S gas in the presence of water vapor. The mechanism has been established by a series of characterizations before, during, and after the different operation units. The KOH deposited after impregnation is carbonated into KHCO(3) at room temperature and then decomposed into K(2)CO(3) during the thermal treatment. K(2)CO(3) and H(2)S dissolve in a liquid aqueous solution formed on the fiber surface. Then carbonate ions and H(2)S molecules react together almost completely to yield HS(-) species. As a consequence the sorption capacities of hydrogen sulfide on the impregnated fibers are much higher, even for small hydrogen sulfide volume fractions.
authors.affiliation: Centre SPIN, Laboratory of Processes in Granular Media, CNRS UMR 5148, Féderation MatSpu 2145, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne, 158 Cours Fauriel, F-42023 St Etienne Cedex 2, France. meljac@emse.fr
authors.forename: Laure
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meljac
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perier-Camby
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thomas