• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.300-305
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• 2013

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and reduced graphite oxide (rGO) composites were synthesized and tested as adsorbents for the hydrogen sulfide ($H_2S$) adsorption at mid-to-high (300 to $500^{\circ}C$) temperatures. In order to investigate the critical roles of oxygen containing functional groups, such as hydroxyl, epoxy and carboxyl groups, attached on rGO surface for the $H_2S$ adsorption, various characterization methods (TGA, XRD, FT-IR, SEM and XPS) were conducted. For the reduction process for graphite oxide (GO) to rGO, a microwave irradiation method was used, and it provided a mild reduction environment which can remain substantial amount of oxygen functional groups on rGO surface. Those functional groups were anchoring and holding nano-sized ZnO onto the 2D rGO surface; and it prevented the aggregation effect on the ZnO particles even at high temperature ranges. Therefore, the $H_2S$ adsorption capacity had been increased about 3.5 times than the pure ZnO.