CO₂ adsorption on crystalline graphitic nanostructures

CO₂ adsorption has been measured in different types of graphitic nanostructures (MWCNTs, acid treated MWCNTs, graphene nanoribbons and pure graphene) in order to evaluate the effect of the different defective regions/conformations in the adsorption process, i.e., sp³ hybridized carbon, curved regions, edge defects, etc. This analysis has been performed both in pure carbon and nitrogen-doped nanostructures in order to monitor the effect of surface functional groups on surface created after using different treatments (i.e., acid treatment and thermal expansion of the MWCNTs), and study their adsorption properties. Interestingly, the presence of exposed defective regions in the acid treated nanostructures (e.g., uncapped nanotubes) gives rise to an improvement in the amount of CO₂ adsorbed; the adsorption process being completely reversible. For N-doped nanostructures, the adsorption capacity is further enhanced when compared to the pure carbon nanotubes after the tubes were unzipped. The larger proportion of defect sites and curved regions together with the presence of stronger adsorbent-adsorbate interactions, through the nitrogen surface groups, explains their larger adsorption capacity.