Nanostructured polyaniline decorated graphene sheets for reversible CO2 capture

The current scientific community is extensively involved in developing novel materials for energy and environmental applications. Capture of CO2 to remove it from the atmosphere is one of the most important applications among them. In the present work, we have demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a polyaniline–graphene nanocomposite as a CO2 capture candidate. Graphene was prepared by hydrogen induced thermal exfoliation of graphite oxide and was further coated with polyaniline using a chemical method. The nanocomposite was characterized by different techniques and the capture capacity was measured using a high pressure Sievert’s apparatus. FTIR spectroscopy was used to confirm the possible CO2 capture mechanism in the nanocomposite. CO2 adsorption capacities at a pressure of 11 bar and different temperatures of 25, 50 and 100 °C were experimentally found to be 75, 47 and 31 mmol g−1, respectively. This nanocomposite shows much higher CO2 capture capacity compared to pure graphene and shows a high degree of recyclability.