Fabrication of magnesium oxide adsorbent by cellulosic filter paper fibre bio-templating for CO₂ adsorption application

¹ Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
² Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: m.arif@utm.my

Abstract

The filter paper bio-templating method has become a promising pathway in the fabrication of MgO with tunned physicochemical features. The filter paper-templated MgO (MgO-FPT) has been subjected to several characterisation analyses, and it has revealed that filter paper templating has demonstrated a positive outcome toward an improvement of physicochemical features, i.e., improved surface reactivity and surface area compared to MgO prepared via direct thermal degradation method of magnesium salt (MgO-CT). As the evidence of the FTIR spectra, the MgO-FPT has demonstrated a surface rich CO₂-associated functional group, which indicate the enhanced surface reactivity of the MgO, which increase of the adsorbent affinity toward CO₂ (even from atmospheric surrounding). Together with the improved structural features compared to MgO-CT (two-fold high surface area), it has significantly refined the CO₂ adsorption uptake capacity to almost 15 times higher than MgO-CT with only 0.247 mmol/g. This shows the potential filter paper bio-templating method for the metal oxide-based adsorbent fabrication for CO₂ adsorption application.