Low-temperature efficient removal of PH3 over novel Cu-based adsorbent in an anaerobic environment

Abstract

The efficient removal of the highly toxic gas PH3 and its resourceful conversion is a major challenge. In this study, a novel copper-based adsorbent (UG@Cu-X) was prepared by direct calcination of a mixture of copper nitrate, urea, and glucose for PH3 purification under low-temperature and anaerobic conditions. As expected, this adsorbent prepared by a simple strategy showed excellent activity in capturing PH3, and the optimized adsorbent (UG@Cu-2) had a PH3 breakthrough capacity of up to 318.58 mg(PH3)·gadsorbent-1 under harsh test conditions (anaerobic, temperature: 60 °C, PH3 concentration: 1,000 ppm, WHSV: 30,000 h−1). This value is significantly better than previously reported. Further studies demonstrated that the superior performance of UG@Cu-X was attributed to its relatively large specific surface area, unique microscopic morphology, high concentration of surface active oxygen, and more substantial alkalinity, while the main cause of adsorbent deactivation was the consumption of the active component CuO. Surprisingly, the deactivation of the UG@Cu-X resulted in the conversion of the active component (CuO) into the high value-added P-type semiconductor Cu3P, a huge potential utilization value in photocatalysis, energy storage, medicine, etc. This phenomenon indicates that the adsorbent prepared in this study can probably achieve resourceful conversion of PH3 while removing PH3 efficiently, and can probably avoid the risk of secondary pollution caused by the deactivated adsorbents.