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Acid/base treatment of monolithic activated carbon for coating silver with tunable morphology

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Abstract

Silver coatings on the exterior surface of monolithic activated carbon (MAC) with different morphology were prepared by directly immersing MAC into [Ag(NH3)2]NO3 solution. Acid and base treatments were employed to modify the surface oxygenic groups of MAC, respectively. The MACs’ Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, surface groups, and silver coating morphology were characterized by N2 adsorption, elemental analysis (EA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The coating morphology was found to be closely related to the surface area and surface functional groups of MAC. For a raw MAC which contained a variety of oxygenic groups, HNO3 treatment enhanced the relative amount of highly oxidized groups such as carboxyl and carbonates, which disfavored the deposition of silver particles. By contrast, NaOH treatment significantly improved the amount of carbonyl groups, which in turn improved the deposition amount of silver. Importantly, lamella silver was produced on raw MAC while NaOH treatment resulted in granular particles because of the capping effect of carbonyl groups. At appropriate [Ag(NH3)2]NO3 concentrations, silver nanoparticles smaller than 100 nm were homogeneously dispersed on NaOH-treated MAC. The successful tuning of the size and morphology of silver coatings on MAC is promising for novel applications in air purification and for antibacterial or aesthetic purposes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Green Support Materials Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. and the Interdisciplinary Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University(YG206MS24). We appreciate the assistance from Instrumental Analysis Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University for SEM, EA and XPS characterization and Sinopec Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology for BET analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Ci Cheng  (程辞), Fei Wang, Binyuan Zhao  (赵斌元), Yuesheng Ning  (宁月生), Yijian Lai & Lei Wang

  2. Green Support Materials Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Shanghai, 200240, China

    Binyuan Zhao  (赵斌元), Yuesheng Ning  (宁月生), Yijian Lai & Lei Wang

Authors
  1. Ci Cheng  (程辞)
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  2. Fei Wang
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  3. Binyuan Zhao  (赵斌元)
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  4. Yuesheng Ning  (宁月生)
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  5. Yijian Lai
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  6. Lei Wang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Binyuan Zhao  (赵斌元) or Yuesheng Ning  (宁月生).

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Funded by the Interdisciplinary Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (YG2016MS24)

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Cheng, C., Wang, F., Zhao, B. et al. Acid/base treatment of monolithic activated carbon for coating silver with tunable morphology. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol.-Mat. Sci. Edit. 32, 760–765 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-017-1664-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-017-1664-0

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