Template-activation coupled synthesis of petroleum pitch-based activated carbon for enhanced ammonia adsorption

The effective treatment of ammonia in industrial exhaust gases has emerged as a critical environmental challenge worldwide. Activated carbon materials, owing to their substantial specific surface area and tunable surface chemistry, have been widely employed for ammonia adsorption. However, their adsorption capacity is fundamentally constrained by the predominant physical adsorption mechanism. To overcome this limitation, we developed a novel metal chloride-loaded petroleum pitch-based activated carbon adsorbent through an integrated templating and activation approach. The optimized material demonstrated exceptional ammonia adsorption performance, achieving a maximum capacity of 47.81 mg/g with an extended breakthrough time of 106.8 min. Comprehensive characterization through BET surface area analysis, XRD, and SEM revealed that the templating method generated abundant ordered mesopores, while the activation process created a hierarchical pore structure containing both micropores and mesopores. This unique porous architecture facilitated effective metal chloride dispersion and enhanced ammonia diffusion kinetics, resulting in significantly improved adsorption performance.