Abstract
The metal-containing ionic liquid, Zn(3)[OAc](8)[C(2)mim](2), was synthesized, characterized, and incipiently impregnated onto the high-surface-area, nanoporous coconut-shell-activated carbon to evaluate its potential for acidic gas capture using SO(2) as the probe gas molecule. The Zn(3)[OAc](8)[C(2)mim](2)-impregnated sorbents were tested for SO(2) sorption performance under a simulated polluted air environment of 10 ppm of SO(2), relative humidity of 50%, and a temperature of 28 °C relevant to fuel cells. Surprisingly, the 5 wt % Zn(3)[OAc](8)[C(2)mim](2) sorbent had the highest SO(2) breakthrough performance compared to the 10 wt %, as well as the pure activated carbon. The material properties were elucidated by using FTIR, TGA, DSC, SEM, and EDS techniques. The absorption of SO(2) was directly confirmed as S-O vibrations at 1100 cm(-1) in ATR-FTIR spectra and sulfur peaks in EDS. The results clearly indicate that metal-containing ionic liquids are good candidates for practical acidic gas mitigation at low contaminant concentrations in the future.