Carbon Aerogel - Application as Toxic Vapor Adsorbent in Respirator

In order to protect rescue personnel from the harmful effects of vapors during fire or chemical incidents, respirators are used as a mandatory requirement. The toxic gas adsorbent is a very important component of the respirator. In this study, carbon aerogel filter with a nonwoven fabric (polypropylene - PP, polyethylene terephthalate - PET) was fabricated by a sol-gel method incorporating thermal processes. Carbon nanomaterials are determined specific surface area by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), material surface shape and structure by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), density. Experimentally evaluate the benzene vapor adsorption capacity of the filter plate at the initial benzene concentration of 5ppm, the temperature of 40 °C and the gas flow up to 30 L.min-1. The resulting carbon aerogel filter has a surface area of ??720.5–805.6 (m2/g), porosity (97.5-98.9 vol%) and pore size (6.1-22.2 Å). CAF-PP and CAF-PET filters have capacity equivalent adsorption, 2.3 and 2.4 mg/g. Breakthrough time for both materials is more than 30 min. CAF-PET filter has shown to be more suitable for use in respirator than CA-PP filter when have lower pressure loss. The results show that the carbon aerogel is suitable for use as an adsorbent for respirator.