Applied Surface Science 530 (2020) 147226

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Applied Surface Science

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Full Length Article

Synthesis, characterization of carbon adsorbents derived from waste T

biomass and its application to CO2 capture
D. Mallesha,b, J. Anbarasana, P. Mahesh Kumara,b, K. Upendara, P. Chandrashekara, B.V.S.K. Raoa,
⁎
N. Lingaiaha,b,
a
Department of Catalysis & Fine Chemicals Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad 500007, Telangana, India
b
CSIR-Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (CSIR-AcSIR), New Delhi, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Waste Entada Rheedii shell (ERS) was used for the preparation of biochar-based adsorbents for CO2 capture at
Entada rheedii shell ambient conditions. Three types of adsorbents were prepared by treating ERS with acid, base and neutral
CO2 capture condition. The physico-chemical properties of synthesized carbons were derived by X-ray diffraction, N2 ad-
Carbon sorption, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, 13C-Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Laser Raman,
Adsorption
Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), CHNS elemental and thermo gravimetric analysis.
Characterization results indicated that the surface area and presence of basic sites in the carbon depended on the
nature of pre-treatment of shell. The CO2 adsorption ability of the ERS derived carbons was tested at ambient
temperatures. Carbon prepared after acid treatment showed superior CO2 adsorption capacity. The reasons for
high CO2 adsorption behavior of the carbons were explained by its characteristics. The adsorption capacity in
presence of moisture was also estimated. These carbon adsorbents also exhibited recyclability without any
change in its adsorption capacity.

1. Introduction
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the main greenhouse gas in the at-
mosphere and it is releasing excessively from the combustion of fossil
fuels [1]. It also marked as the second largest contributor to the
greenhouse effect [2]. Nowadays, majority of the society depends up on
fossil fuels for energy and scientists are trying to find alternative re-
newable energy resources. The immediate replacement of fossil fuels
form other renewable sources are not possible. CO2 capture and se-
questration is the suitable technology to overcome the greenhouse ef-
fect. The carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology could be effec-
tively achieved using post combustion capture than that of pre-
combustion and oxy-fuel methods [3,4].
Presently, capture of CO2 using amine solutions is the mature
technology for practical applications. However, it endures from in-
trinsic restrictions due to high energy needs, chemical instability, cor-
rosion of process equipment and limited tolerance to impurities [5].
The alternative approach to CO2 capture in the atmosphere is adsorp-
tion using adsorbents. It is considered as both economically as well as
environmentally advantage due to high sorption competence, less en-
ergy for regeneration, better selectivity and smooth handling [6]. In
this respect, several possible solid adsorbent materials like zeolites, its
composites [7], modified activated carbons [8–13], titania nanotubes
[14], and metal − organic frameworks are explored [15,16]. Presently,
the research is going on to find effective adsorbents for CO2 capture at
ambient conditions [17]. Among them activated carbon (AC) and ac-
tivated carbon fibers (ACF) are well studied even though they suffer
from relatively low CO2 adsorption capacity. The research is mainly
focused on to find the adsorbents with affordability, availability, high
hydrophobicity and reusability [18,19]. In this context, preparing a
carbon-based adsorbent with easily available and cheap raw material is
essential aspect [20–22].
The present study aimed at the development of adsorbents from
agricultural waste biomass Entada Rheedii shell (ERS). This shell was
from Entada Rheedii tree and belongs to Leguminosae family com-
monly called as African dream herb or snuff box sea bean (Fig. 1).
Activated carbon was prepared by treating ERS under different condi-
tions and characterized by various methods. The CO2 adsorption ca-
pacity of the carbon derived from ERS were discussed based on their
properties.

⁎
Corresponding author at: Department of Catalysis & Fine Chemicals Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad 500007, Telangana,
India.
E-mail address: nakkalingaiah@iict.res.in (N. Lingaiah).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147226
Received 23 March 2020; Received in revised form 7 July 2020; Accepted 8 July 2020
Available online 15 July 2020
0169-4332/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
D. Mallesh, et al. Applied Surface Science 530 (2020) 147226

connected to gas chromatograph (Agilent 7820A) having a thermal

conducting detector (TCD) and porapak Q column. In a typical ex-
periment, about 1 g of adsorbent mixed with 0.5 g of quartz beads
suspended in between two quartz plugs in middle of the reactor. The
adsorbent was initially activated in He at 200 °C for 1 h. A 10% CO2
balanced He gas mixture was delivered over the adsorbent at desired
temperature (50–90 °C) and the gas concentration was monitored at
outlet periodically. After the sample had attained its CO2 saturation
capacity, purged with He gas for 30 min. Then the desorption was
monitored by ramping the bed temperature at a rate of 5 °C/min until it
reaches 140 °C. The moisture forbearance measurements were per-
formed by bubbling He gas through a water trap at room temperature
over the sample for 1 h. Then dry He was purged over adsorbent and
subsequent adsorption was continued as mentioned above.

3. Results and discussions

Fig. 1. Entada rheedii shell (African dream herb).
3.1. Characteristics of carbon samples

2. Experimental Adsorption-desorption of N2 was used to find the surface area of the

materials. The values of BET surface area, pore volume (Vm) and
2.1. Activated carbon preparation from waste biomass average pore diameter (Dp) are summarized in Table 1. The carbon that
obtained after treatement with acid and base showed high surface area
ERS was gathered from Thirupathi, India and made into small pieces than prepared by water treatment. Among the all carbon adsorbent
of 2–3 mm size. It was thoroughly cleaned with deionized water and derived after acid treatment showed high surface area of 488 m2/g.
kept for drying in oven for about 12 h at 100 °C. Then, 15 g of the dried Fig. 2 shows the N2 adsorption – desorption isotherms of the activated
ERS was treated with 150 ml of 2 M NaOH solution for 2 h under carbon adsorbents. The isotherms idenetified as type I and type IV
vigorous stirring and the resulted shell was rinsed with water. The fil- isotherms according to IUPAC classifications. The isotherms showed
trated shell was dried at 100 °C for at least 12 h and the dried material hysteresis loops in desorption branches for all carbon adsorbents. These
was carbonized at 650 °C for 4 h under N2 gas flow. The material thus observed isotherms indicate the presence of microporous and meso-
obtained after carbonization is denoted as ERS-B. The same procedure porous structure of activated carbons [23,24].
was followed for the treatment with 2 M hydrochloric acid and water. XRD patterns of the adsorbents are revealed in Fig. 3. The carbon
These samples were denoted as ERS-A and ERS-W, where “A” represent derived after treatment with acid and water exhibited broad patterns
acid and “W” represent water treatment respectively. exhibited at 2θ of 23.3° and 43.2° corresponds to (0 0 2) and (1 0 0)
planes related to aromatic carbon matrix [25–27]. The peak corre-
2.2. Characterization sponding to (1 0 0) plane at 43.2° has low intensity for ERS-W carbon.
This directly indicates that the disordered graphitic structure formed
The surface area of the carbon samples was estimated by N2 gas for carbon derived after water treatment. Graphitic nature improved
adsorption using BET method on BELSORB II Instrument, Japan. The with acid treatment compared to water treatment. On other hand ERS-B
samples were out-gassed at 200 °C to clean surface prior to building of showed peaks at 2θ = 23.6, 29.3, 35.3, 36.8, 40.0, 46.5, 48.4, in-
adsorption isotherm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were recorded dicating the decrease in the degree of graphitization [25].
over Rigaku Miniflex diffractometer using Cu Kα radiation. The mea- During NaOH activation it forms NaHCO3, and this is not removed
surements were carried in steps of 0.045° with account time of 0.5 s in completely during washing process. Which may be reason for presence
the 2θ range of 10–80°. The elemental compositions (XRF) of the ERS of Na in ERS-B, as showed in XRF results [27]. The XRD results suggest
adsorbents were performed over S4 POINEER WDXRF Wave length that during NaOH activation the graphitic nature is being disordered.
dispersive instrument made by Bruker Ax’s. One can conclude from these results that acid treatment can improve
FT-IR analyses of the samples were obtained on a DIGILAB Biorad the aromatic carbon and base treatment helps in the formation of non-
spectrometer using KBr disc at a resolution of 1 cm−1. Bruker AV- aromatic carbon with lower carbon content.
500 MHz, spectrometer was used to obtain 13C NMR spectra of the The elemental composition of the adsorbents were estimated by XRF
carbon samples using TMS as an internal standard. analysis. Elemetal composition of raw shell and carbon adsorbents after
Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed on TGA Q500 different treatment are presented Table. 2. XRF results indicate the
V20.13 Build 39 instrument. The samples were initially purged with
nitrogen and heated from room temperature to 800 °C with a heating Table 1
rate maintained at 10 °C/min. Field emission scanning electron mi- Physico-chemical properties of the activated carbons.
croscopy analysis were performed using JEOL FE-SEM-7610F micro- Adsorbent SBETa Smicrob Vmicroc Vmesod Vpe Dpf (nm)
scope to elucidate the morphology of adsorbents. Vario Micro Cube (m2/g) (m2/g) (cm3/g) (cm3/g) (cm3/g)
Elemental Analyzer was used to estimate C, H, N and S contents in the
ERS-W 68 63 0.031 0.015 0.046 1.41
samples. ERS-B 336 332 0.138 0.018 0.156 1.48
ERS-A 488 485 0.180 0.016 0.196 1.97

2.3. CO2 adsorption measurements a

Specific surface areas were calculated using BET method.
b
Micropore surface area from t – plot method.
CO2 adsorption was performed in a down flow fixed bed reactor c
Micropore volume determined by the t – plot method.
(stainless steel, 30 cm length: 10 mm i. d.). He and CO2 gas flows were d
Mesopore volume determined from Vp - Vmicro .
passed using mass flow controllers. Adsorbent bed temperature was e
Total pore volume at p/p0 ~ 0.99.
f
maintained using PID controller. The outlet of the reactor was Average pore diameter.

2
D. Mallesh, et al.
Fig. 2. (a) N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms (b) pore size distribution of ERS
adsorbents.
Fig. 3. XRD pattern of (a) ERS-W (b) ERS-B (c) ERS-A.
presence of Na percentage in ERS-B sample. Some of the important
elements (Mg, K, Ca) was observed in all adsorbents. However higher
percentage of elemental composition was noticed in ERS-A, which may
help in CO2 adsorption capacity. The XRF results of ERS is given in
3
Applied Surface Science 530 (2020) 147226
Table 2 represents the composition of raw biomass Entada Rheedii shell
with out any modification.
FT-IR spectra of ERS based adsorbents are presented in Fig. 4. The
FT–IR analysis of the samples gave vibrations mainly in the region of
3400–3500, 2800–3000, 1650–1750, 1375–1465, 800–1000 cm−1. The
base treated carbon ERS–B showed additional strong bands particularly
in the range of 600–800 cm−1. ERS-W showed main bands at 1092 and
1398 related to CO32– symmetric stretching vibration. The bands at
1633, 2926 cm−1 corresponds to C = C and –CH2 asymmetric streching
vibration respectively [28,29]. ERS-B showed band at 1464 cm−1 re-
lavant to bending vibrations of –CH2. The bands observed at
1180 cm−1, 1026 cm−1 represents –C–N functional group and the band
appeared at 847 cm−1 might to be due to = CH2 out of plan bending
vibrations. ERS-A showed a band at 2915 cm−1 assigned to –O–H of
–CO2H functional group. The 1627, 1386 cm−1 bands represents in-
plan –C–H bending. The band showed at 1099 cm−1 assigned to –C–N
streching present in aliphatic carbon and two more bands appeared at
871, 741 cm−1 were attributed to in–plane and out–of–plan –NH2 vi-
brations [30]. All three adsorbents showed similar type bands around
3400, 1730–1620 which are corresponding to O − H, C]O stretching
vibrations, respectively and the bands between 1600 and 1430 cm−1
could be assigned to aromatic C–C, C]C, C]N vibrations [27]. The
adsorbents also showed one more peak at 1020 cm−1, which is evident
that the acid/alkali treatement may produce changes in the surface
functiuonal groups. This indicates the formation of carbonyl-containing
groups during carbonization. Interestingly, these functional groups may
favor for binding of CO2 molecules.
Laser Raman spectra of the adsorbents are presented in Fig. 5. These
samples showed distinct peaks at 1345 and 1597 cm−1 corresponding
to D and G bands of carbon skeleton respectively [31]. Typically, D
band is ascribed to amorphous or disordered carbons and G band de-
rives from in-plane tangential stretching of C]C bonds in graphene
sheets. The ratio of ID/IG is calculated to know difference in the nature
of carbon. The ID/IG ratios of the ERS-W, ERS-B, ERS-A are 1.08, 1.20,
0.91 respectively. A high value of ID/IG is observed for ERS-B. The
decrease of ID/IG ratio value indicates the growth of aromatic rings. The
sample with low ID/IG ratio is closer to that of graphite carbon. The ID/
IG value is low for ERS-A, which contains more graphite carbon com-
pared to ERS-B and ERS-W samples.
The carbon samples structure was examined by 13C NMR mea-
surements. This technique is well recognized to specify structural in-
formation of materials that cannot be fully revealed using XRD due to
insufficient long–range order [32]. Fig. 6 shows the 13C NMR spectra of
carbon adsorbents. A major broad peak centered at
δ = +130–135 ppm, representative of sp2–hybridized carbon in con-
densed aromatic rings was observed for all the samples [33]. The 13C
spectra also showed a broad peak around δ = +200–210 ppm, related
to C]O functional group of carbon. This peak is present in all the three
adsorbents but the intensity of signal height was significantly dominant
in case of ERS-A. Typically, the observation of broad resonances can be
associated to the existence of paramagnetic impurities. ERS-B sample
showed a broad peak at δ = +180 ppm, which could be an indicative
of the existence of higher amount of oxygen-containing surface func-
tional groups compare to ERS-A and ERS-W. In additions to the above
peaks, chemical shift was noticed in the region around
δ = +25–50 ppm assigned to R3C-, R2CH-, RCH2- functional groups.
Typically, biomass based materials may form pores during the acid
or base treatment owing to some of the biomass react with acid/base to
form volatile material and this volatile material can escape from the
surface during high temperature carbonization. To know the mor-
phology of the adsorbent material, FE–SEM is one of the powerful
technique. The captured FE–SEM images of the adsorbensts are dipicted
in Fig. 7. From the SEM analysis the raw biomass ERS sample shows no
morphology. The image of ERS-A has a helical ribbon structure with
high density of pores compared to that of ERS-B. The flakes like
structure was noticed for ERS-W sample. The FE-SEM micrograph
D. Mallesh, et al. Applied Surface Science 530 (2020) 147226

Table 2
Elemental composition of activated carbons derived from ERS shell (%).
Adsorbent name Na Mg Al Si P S K Ca Fe

ERS 0.000 0.012 0.014 0.175 0.180 0.064 0.065 0.238 0.425
ERS-W 0.000 0.199 0.039 0.294 0.046 0.085 0.073 1.402 0.114
ERS-B 0.435 0.022 0.017 0.084 0.090 0.018 0.520 1.453 0.129
ERS-A 0.000 0.286 0.015 0.129 0.012 0.057 2.844 4.216 0.273

13
Fig. 6. C NMR spectra of (a) ERS-W (b) ERS-B (c) ERS-A.

Fig. 4. FT-IR pattern of (a) ERS-W (b) ERS-B (c) ERS-A.
present on the ERS shells that easily dissolved in alkali solutión. The
carbon content in ERS-B was only 63.8 wt%. This indicates the reaction
between NaOH and C, which is considered the main reason as large
amount of carbon decomposition [35,36]. These result are in line with
the observations made from XRD and Raman analysis.
Thermogramimetric anslysis was carried for the adsorbents and the
thermograms of the adsorbents are presented in Fig. 8. The TG curves
indicate that at around 100–200 °C significant weight loss was observed
for the adsorbents, which was credited to desorption of water mole-
cules. In case of ERS-A, the weight loss is more significant than the
others because this sample has more number of functional groups.
These groups might decompose during TG analysis. The CHNS and
FT–IR analysis suggest the presence of nitrogen based functional groups
for ERS-A carbon obtained after acid treatment.

3.2. CO2 adsorption studies on ERS derived carbons

The quantity of CO2 adsorbed on ERS based carbons is determined

Fig. 5. Raman spectra of (a) ERS-W (b) ERS-B (c) ERS-A.
indicates that the ERS-A is a highly porous material with a random pore
structure. The high surface area for this sample also support the ob-
servations made from FE-SEM images.
The chemical activation followed by carbonization process enriches
the carbon content and also creates an ordered pores on the surface of
carbon and this leads to the formation of high porous strcuture [34].
The carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur (CHNS) analysis results are
presented in Table 3. The elemental percentage of carbon in ERS-A and
ERS-W was higher than that of ERS-B, due to some organic matter
from the breakthrough experiments carried at 50 to 90 °C and the re-
sulted curves are presented in Fig. 9.
The adsorption abilities of the samples for CO2 are presented in
Table 4. The results suggest that with increasing temperature, CO2
adsorption capability was decreased. The adsorption is an exothermic
in nature and it could be higher at lower temperatures. The CO2 ad-
sorption capacity at 50 °C which was much higher than that observed at
90 °C. The CO2 adsorption capacity of the carbons are in the order ERS-
A > ERS-B > ERS-W. The difference in adsorption capacities of the
samples prepared by different treatments can be explained based on
their properties derived from different characterization tools.
The experimental results suggested that a linear relationship exist
between the surface area and CO2 adsorption capacity. The maximum
adsorption of about 4.40 mmol g−1 was found for ERS-A at 50 °C. It was
observed that during acid/base treatment, the functional groups of the
volatile organic matter present in the raw shell dissolve more in the acid
than that of base. The acid treatment led to increase the volume of

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D. Mallesh, et al. Applied Surface Science 530 (2020) 147226

Fig. 7. FE-SEM images of (a) ERS (b) ERS-W (c) ERS-B (d) ERS-A.

Table 3 drawn between these and shown in Fig. 10. The relationship exhibited
CHNS analysis of ERS based carbon adsorbents. with a linear trend (R2 = 0.912) between micro pore size and CO2
Adsorbent C H N S O adsorption capacity at 50 °C. This suggests that the micropores present
in the prepared adsorbents are playing
ERS-W 79.7 1.8 0.47 0.08 8.77 Fig. 10. Plot of CO2 uptake versus micropore volume of adsorbents
ERS-B 63.8 1.6 0.23 0.01 30.60
important role in CO2 adsorption. It can be observed from the N2 ad-
ERS-A 85.7 2.0 1.11 0.05 3.35
sorption curves and Fig. 10 that the adsorption is higher in case of ERS-
A than the other two samples, because of the presence of a greater
number of micropores that are developed during acid treatment fol-
lowed by carbonization. Activation using HCl can dissolve impurities
implying that the pores are well established especially micro pores.
Micropores exhibit strong adsorption potentials, which can increase the
strength of interaction between CO2 molecules and pore walls. The
increase in micropores was well supported by the presence of high
surface area for ERS-A (488 m2.g−1) than that of ERS-B (336 m2 g−1)
and ERS-W (68 m2 g−1).
The superior CO2 adsorption capacity of the ERS-A is also explained
by surface functional groups. The acid treated adsorbent (ERS-A) con-
tains high number of nitrogen atoms in their surface. During acid
treatment the acid HCl is able to remove the mineral matter present in
the biomass, and not having any effect on the basic sites of nitrogen
functional groups [40]. FT-IR results suggests the existence of nitrogen
and sulphur in adsorbents in the form of C-S (847 cm−1), C]N
(1180 cm−1), C]N (1633 cm−1) and C–N or S–H (2452 cm−1). When
sulphur exist in the oxidized form (–SO) or (–SO2), the acidic nature
sulphure can bind with negetiveliy charged oxygen. The negatively
charged oxygen has high affinity to CO2. It is also one of the reason for
Fig. 8. Thermograms of the ERS derived adsorbents. CO2 adsorption. The presence of –NH2 and –C–N functional groups
might enhance the CO2 adsorption capacity. CHNS analsysis showed in
micropores. This indicated that ERS-A effectively created well-devel- Table 3 also suggests the high amount of nitrogen content for ERS –A
oped micropores on the surface of the adsorbent. Micro pores are ef- than other adsorbents. These characterization results concludes that
fective for capturing CO2 [37]. Many researchers reported that micro more alkyl amine functional groups and –C–N functional groups present
porosity plays an important role in CO2 adsorption [38,39]. on ERS – A asorbent. This is also one of the reasons for increase in CO2
In order to know the relation between number of micro pores in the adsorption capacity for the carbon prepared after acid treatment.
ERS derived adsorbents and their CO2 adsorption capacity, a plot was The acidic nature of CO2 (a weak Lewis acid) expected to adsorb on

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D. Mallesh, et al. Applied Surface Science 530 (2020) 147226

Table 5
Comparison of activated carbon prepared from different sources for CO2 cap-
ture.
Precursor CarbonizationTemp. (° C) Adsorption capacity Reference
(mmol/g) 50° C

EFB 800 2.3 [41]

Algae 700 2.8 [42]
Starch 700 2.2 [43]
Sawdust 600 3.6 [43]
Algae 600 0.4 [44]
Entada rheedii 650 4.4 Present work

surface of activated carbon, which have more basic sites such as alkyl-
amines. Consequently, CO2 adsorption capacity was significantly im-
proved by the basic functional groups over the surface of carbon [4].
The presence of the enough preferred functional groups for ERS-A ad-
sorbent was confirmed from FT-IR and 13C NMR analysis. Finally, it is
believed that the ERS-A could be a favorable adsorbent for CO2 capture
at ambient pressure and temperatures.

3.3. Comparison with other carbons adsorbents

The present carbon adsorbent for CO2 is compared with other ad-
sorbents derived from different sources. The CO2 adsorption capacity
measured at 50 °C of the reported adsorbents is presented along with
the present adsorbent in Table 5. The results indicate that the carbons
derived from Algae, starch and sawdust exhibited low CO2 adsorption
capacity compared to the present adsorbent derived from ERS.

3.4. Recyclability of adsorbents

The ERS-A adsorbent was used for CO2 sorption recyclability test by
conducting adsorption and desorption at 70 °C and 140 °C respectively.
Fig. 9. CO2 adsorption breakthrough curves on ERS based adsorbents at dif- The adsorption capacity followed by desorption at 140 °C has continued
ferent temperatures. consequently for five times and the results are presented in Fig. 10. The
results indicate that there is no change in breakthrough adsorption
Table 4 capacity during number of recycles. A little decline in total adsorption
Adsorption capacity of carbons at three different temperatures (mmol/g). capacity for first two cycles was noticed. There after same adsorption
capacity was noticed up to five consecutive cycles. The results support
Materials 50 °C 70 °C 90 °C
that the ERS derived carbon adsorbent is not only having high ad-
BTC SAC BTC SAC BTC SAC sorption capacity towards CO2 but also reusable consistently.

ERS-W 1.13 2.46 1.10 2.19 0.54 1.31

ERS-B 1.93 3.34 1.64 2.86 1.09 1.99 3.5. Moisture tolerance test
ERS-A 2.46 4.40 1.85 4.12 1.67 2.90
The water tolerance is also a promising property in order to get
good adsorbent for CO2 capture. Therefore, water tolerance capacity of
adsorbent was studied. Firstly, the adsorbent surface was saturated with
water vapor at 70 °C and after that weakly adsorbed water as well as the
gas pipe lines are cleaned by passing He gas for about 45 min. ERS-A
adsorbent with moisture content was examined for CO2 adsorption
power and the results are shown in Fig. 11. Interestingly, there is no
considerable change in the CO2 adsorption capacity in the presence of
moisture. These results indicate that ERS-A is acting as good water
tolerant material for CO2 adsorption.

4. Conclusions

Activated carbon adsorbents were successfully prepared from

Fig. 10. Recyclability of ERS–A adsorbent for CO2 adsorption.
Entada Rheedii shell using chemical activation followed by carboniza-
tion. These adsorbents were active for CO2 capture at low temperatures
at atmosphere pressure. The surface-structural features of the ad-
sorbents depended on the nature of pretreatment of the shells. The acid
treatment is preferred method to obtain best adsorbent with superior
CO2 adsorption ability. The exceptional CO2 adsorption capability of
ERS-A was mainly related to its high surface area, presence of favored

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D. Mallesh, et al.
Fig. 11. Water tolerance capacity of adsorbent during CO2 adsorption.
basic functional groups and existence of graphitic carbon. The ERS-A is
an exceptionally better CO2 adsorbent with good recyclability and
tolerant to wet conditions.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
D. Mallesh: Data acquisition by experimentation and character-
ization. J. Anabarasan: Synthesis of catalysts. P. Mahesh Kumar:
Adsorbent characterization. K. Upender: Characterization interpreta-
tion and drafting. P. Chandrashekar: Visualization, Supervision.
B.V.S.K. Rao: Resources, Methodology. N. Lingaiah:
Conceptualization, Reviewing and Editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
One of the author DM thankful to council of scientific and industrial
Research (CSIR)-New Delhi, India for the financial support in the form
of a research fellowship.
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