Preparation Cu-Doped Carbon Aerogels and their Adsorptive Desulfurization Performance

Cu-doped carbon aerogels were prepared by the sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol with formaldehyde in aqueous solution to produce organic gels that are supercritically dried in n-hexane and subsequently pyrolyzed in an inert atmosphere, using sodium carbonate as catalyst and copper acetate as copper source. The addition amount of the copper acetate in the initial reaction mixture has a profound effect on the surface morphology and pore texture of the resulting aerogel. It is shown that the introduction of copper lead to generation of ultrafine micropores. The desulfurization performance of the as-obtained carbon aerogels was evaluated by selective adsorption of dibenzothiophene (DBT) as a model sulfur compound and benzene as a competitive aromatic compound. It is found that the adsorption capacity for DBT is related to the volume of micropores. And the selectivity is improved with the increase of copper content, indicating the presence of copper is favorable to DBT retention on the surface via its π-complexation effect.