Nitrogen and hydrogen adsorption of activated carbon fibers modified by fluorination

In this study, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were surface modified with fluorine and mixed oxygen and fluorine gas to investigate the relationship between changes in surface properties by nitrogen and hydrogen adsorption capacity. The changes in surface properties of modified activated carbon fibers were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and compared before and after surface treatment. The specific surface area and pore structures were characterized by the nitrogen adsorption isotherm at liquid nitrogen temperature. Hydrogen adsorption isotherms were obtained at 77 K and 1 bar by a volumetric method. The hydrogen adsorption capacity of fluorinated activated carbon fibers was the smallest of all samples. However, the bulk density in this sample was largest. This result could be explained by virial coefficients. The interaction of hydrogen-surface carbon increased with fluorination as the first virial coefficient. Also, the best fit adsorption model was found to explain the adsorption mechanism using a nonlinear curve fit. According to the goodness-of-fit, the Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm model was in good agreement with experimental data from this study.