h-BNNT aerogel for selective CO2 adsorption and H2 storage

Global warming caused by green house gases heat-trapping abilities has caught the world’s attention due to the undesirable consequences that it will result in.In order to mitigate global warming, an immediate action to reduce carbon dioxide released from burning of fossil fuel to the atmosphere is required. Alongside with reducing CO2 emission, hydrogen is foreseen to be the fuel for clean energy in the future. In this experiment, hexagonal boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) aerogel has been selected as a candidate for CO2 adsorption and H2 storage. Macroporous BNNT aerogel was synthesized employing an elemental substitution reaction where carbon nanotube aerogel is used as precursor.It possesses a specific surface area of 1287.426 m²/g with 3.026 cc/g of pore volume and exhibits a five fold and four fold increase in selectivity for CO2 over N2 at 273K and 198K, respectively. It is deduced that the high affinity shown towards CO2 is because of the intrinsic polar nature of B-N bonds and the high quadrupole moment of CO2 over N2. Adsorption of hydrogen gas was undergone at cryogenic temperature (77K and 87K), the uptake capability are 1.56wt% and 0.63wt% respectively. XPS, Raman Spectroscopy, SEM, EDX, TEM, and BET have been carried out to characterize BNNT aerogel and CNT aerogel synthesized.Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Engineering