Plasma–Surface Interactions in KOH-Activated Carbon Foams for CO₂ Capture and Carbon-Mediated CO Formation

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🔬研究者:プラズマ化学と材料科学の融合によるCO2変換の新知見。

Abstract Integrating CO₂ capture and conversion within a single material platform offers an attractive route to reduce process complexity in carbon utilization technologies. Here, we investigate KOH-activated carbon foams as triple-functional electrodes that simultaneously adsorb CO₂, provide a reactive carbon surface for plasma-assisted CO formation, and serve as the discharge electrode in a DC corona reactor, enabling direct plasma–solid contact at the carbon interface. KOH-activated carbon foams were prepared across a systematic activation parameter space, with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy revealing a non-monotonic dependence of oxygen-containing surface functional groups on activation temperature and impregnation ratio. CO₂ breakthrough measurements and gas-phase mass spectrometry confirm material-dependent capture and CO conversion behavior, with the 4:1–750 °C condition exhibiting the most favorable uptake and transport kinetics. While Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and zero-dimensional plasma chemistry modeling are individually well-established, their combined use to probe how electrode surface chemistry alone modifies plasma fragmentation pathways under otherwise identical discharge conditions has received little attention. Addressing this gap, OES is employed as a diagnostic tool, revealing condition-dependent shifts in CN, CO, CO⁺, and OH emission intensities. A custom-built zero-dimensional plasma chemistry model reproduces key qualitative features of the emission spectra and identifies the heterogeneous Boudouard reaction as the kinetically dominant CO production pathway under the experimental conditions examined. Across all diagnostics, CO formation is surface-reaction-limited rather than plasma-energy-limited, and the 4:1–750 °C condition consistently establishes the most productive plasma–surface interaction regime. These findings demonstrate that electrode surface chemistry is an active and tunable variable in plasma-driven CO₂ conversion.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-026-10696-yfirst seen 2026-08-02 05:26:14 · last seen 2026-08-02 05:27:55