Abstract:
The increasing industrial emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose severe threats to ecological systems. Efficient abatement of P-Xylene (PX), a representative persistent toxic pollutant, is urgently required. To address the agglomeration instability of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in adsorption processes, this study innovatively engineered paper-like sintered stainless steel fibers (PSSF) as substrates. Using chemical vapor deposition with sublimed sulfur and thiourea as precursors, sulfur-doped (SCNT/PSSF) and sulfur-nitrogen co-doped CNT composites (SNCNT/PSSF) were synthesized.Multimodal characterization demonstrated that nitrogen doping significantly enhanced graphitization (I
D/I
G = 0.92, sp
2-C content: 67.78%) and promoted ordered CNT growth, yielding a 104.7% increase in char yield (42.71% vs. 20.86% for SCNT/PSSF). Structured fixed-bed adsorption experiments revealed 51.37% bed utilization efficiency for SNCNT/PSSF, surpassing SCNT/PSSF (33.63%) by 53%, confirming the adsorption enhancement via N-doping.A comparative study of packing ratios across different bed configurations demonstrates: Increasing SNCNT/PSSF bed proportion improved mass transfer efficiency, reducing the length of unused bed (LUB) and raising utilization to 59.32%; Optimal operation required low inlet flow rates (≤100 mL/min) and PX concentrations (≤2.17 mg/L).Furthermore, the adsorption process in structured packed-bed systems is accurately described by the Yoon-Nelson model. This work presents a novel development strategy for fabricating high-stability, engineerable VOCs adsorption materials.