Comprehensive protection against ammonia by Cu2+ modified activated carbon

Abstract

An innovative “material-component-whole” evaluation model was used to assess the overall protective performance of gas masks against ammonia. Coconut shell-based carbon (AC-S), coconut shell-impregnated carbon (ACCu-S), coal-based carbon (AC-C), and coal-impregnated carbon (ACCu-C) were chosen as the adsorbents for this study. The physicochemical characteristics of the activated carbon samples were analyzed through SEM, BET, FT-IR, EA, XPS and XRD tests. This research delves into the breakthrough curves of ammonia gas by the activated carbon and canisters under varying concentrations of ammonia, ambient temperatures, airflow velocities, and relative humidity, also exploring the breakthrough curves of ammonia gas by gas masks under different ammonia concentrations and airflow patterns while considering both dynamic and static adsorption of activated carbon. The empirical results show that increased levels of ammonia concentration, ambient temperature, and airflow velocities lead to decreased protection duration of activated carbon and canisters. Conversely, an elevation in the relative humidity within the ammonia gas stream results in an expansion of the protection time. This study found a linear correlation between the protection time of S and C canisters and the corresponding protection time of the impregnated carbon. Lastly, the protective time of gas masks in sinusoidal airflow mode is highlighted as having a more significant impact.