Kinetic study of type SBA-15 materials functionalized with chitosan

Amino-functionalized SBA-15 was prepared using 1.0 and 2.5% chitosan solutions and a wet impregnation method. The adsorbents were characterized by XRD, TG, DSC, SEM, FTIR and nitrogen adsorption/desorption. The results showed that the insertion of chitosan into the holder did not destroy its typical hexagonal structure, maintaining its morphology and a uniform distribution of pores. The thermal stability of the CS and CS-SBA-2.5 materials was investigated using the Vyazovkin and Ozawa–Flynn–Wall kinetic models. The apparent activation energies (Eα) obtained ranged around 161–335 kJ mol−1, and a conversion range of 0.2–0.8, with minimum variations, was observed for the two methods and both samples. However, the results showed that the Eα, which is an important factor to future applications in adsorption of CO2, was not significantly altered by the presence of SBA-15.