Competitive adsorption of gaseous acetic acid, ethanol and acetaldehyde onto wool powder

Natural resources are highly cost-effective adsorbents to reduce the indoor air pollution. However, there is a lack of understanding how the presence of several odor types affect their adsorption behavior. This study systematically investigates the adsorption selectivity and capacity of wool powder towards three typical odor types (acetic acid, ethanol and acetaldehyde) under single, binary and ternary systems through time-resolved spectral analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Wool powder showed different adsorption capacities for selected odor types in the single-component system. These findings were further manifested by DFT calculations to confirm the adsorption energy and surface adsorption sites between wool powder and odors. Acetic acid showed the highest competitivity among the tested odor types, followed by ethanol, which could be attributed to its high molecular weight and strong adsorption energy. This work provides new insights into adsorption mechanisms through adsorption energy analysis, promoting the application of natural proteaceous adsorbents.