Composite Sorbent Research Articles

How Conventional Approaches to the Use of Polymer-Containing Composites in Molecular Diagnostics Are Changing

Known approaches to the isolation of biopolymers, in particular nucleic acids (NAs), from biological samples are based on the binding of molecules to a sorbent (“positive selection”) with their subsequent elution using a suitable eluent. The review article discusses the physicochemical processes underlying the development of methods for isolating of NAs from biological samples. It has been shown that methods including the selective solid-phase extraction (i.e., reversible sorption) provide the possibility of miniaturization and automation of the corresponding processes. The review discusses the advantages of an alternative approach to NAs isolation based on the use of special sorbents that bind proteins and other components of biological samples, while these sorbents exhibit sorption inertness with respect to NAs (“negative selection”). Approaches providing the creation of such composite polymer-containing sorbents, which are designed for the sample preparation during molecular diagnostics, as well as the methods of their effective use are considered. It has been demonstrated that due to an interdisciplinary approach using a complex of synthetic and analytical methods, it is possible to combine as a single object of study the composite materials that are very different in structure and properties. Such nanostructured composites (based on porous silica, synthetic membranes, glass multicapillaries) contain fluoropolymers and polyanilines. The results of the use of such composites for selective isolation of NAs and/or proteins from biological samples are discussed. Alternative applications of such composites in molecular diagnostics, in particular, in mass spectrometry, are considered. Directions for expanding of the field of application of polymer-containing composites due to simultaneous use of the sorption properties of the obtained composites surface and the properties of sorbate molecules are outlined. It has been shown that both polymeric and low molecular weight modifiers of the same chemical nature are suitable for the technological preparation of such composites.

Preparation of bowl-shaped polydopamine surface imprinted polymer composite adsorbent for specific separation of 2′-deoxyadenosine

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have great potential as adsorbents for selective adsorption and separation of nucleoside compounds, but effectively enhancing the affinity of recognition sites by adjusting the forces between template molecules and functional monomers remains an important challenge. In this work, a surface imprinting strategy was used to construct bowl-shaped molecularly imprinted composite sorbents (BHPN@MIPs) based on polydopamine (PDA) particles and have achieved selective separation and purification of 2′-deoxyadenosine (dA). Where by the base complementary pairing interaction of the combined template molecule dA and the pyrimidine functional monomer can enhance the pre-assembly force, and the hydrophilic bowl-shaped PDA can provide a larger storage space contact efficiency of dA in the test solution, causing the site utilization much higher and improving the kinetic adsorption performance. The equilibrium adsorption time and maximum adsorption capacity of 60 min and 328.45 μmol·g−1 were observed by static adsorption experiments, and the selectivity experimental results showed an imprinting factor IF of 1.30. After four adsorption–desorption cycles, the initial adsorption equilibrium adsorption capacity of BHPN@MIPs still retained 91.14%. By evaluating the selective adsorption of dA in spiked human serum solutions, BHPN@MIPs can be used to selectively enrich and analyze target dA in complex biological samples.

Removal of aqueous eriochrome blue-black R by novel Na-bentonite/hickory biochar composites

Advanced clay sorbents have attracted widespread attentions for applications in environment remediation and pollution control. Here, a facile and environmentally-friendly approach to synthesizing a porous Na-bentonite/hickory-biochar composite sorbent from hickory waste biomass using hand-milling and carbon-bed pyrolysis was investigated. The sorbents, made using a range of clay/biomass ratios and at a range of temperatures, were characterized and examined for their ability to remove Eriochrome blue black R (EBBR) anionic organic dyes from aqueous solution. The composite sorbents showed increased microporosity and O-containing functional groups over the pyrolyzed bentonite control. The composite prepared with 10% biomass by weight, and at 600 °C had the greatest EBBR adsorption, and was best fit to Freundlich isotherm and intraparticle diffusion kinetics models. The modeled maximum EBBR sorption capacity of this composite (2020.5 mg g−1, R2 adj = 0.92), which was attributed to the dispersion of bentonite particles over the biochar surface. These results show the bentonite/biochar composite to have great potential for use in environmental remediation applications.

Chemisorption heat pump governed by asynchronous start-stop method for stable heat output

To guarantee clean heating of buildings in cold regions, an off-peak electricity driven chemisorption heat pump employing SrCl2/sulfurized expanded graphite composite sorbent is developed. However, the heat output temperature of chemisorption heat pump fluctuates greatly, up to 30 °C, which seriously restricts its popularization and application. In this paper, the above-mentioned problems are solved from two aspects of sorption bed structure design and system operation strategy. The sorption bed utilized for thermal energy storage is especially composed of several unit reactors, and the asynchronous start-stop control method of unit reactors is innovatively proposed. By controlling their start and stop time, the temperature fluctuation range of hot water that the heat pump outputs is significantly reduced. Simultaneously, to improve the energy efficiency of heat pump, small temperature difference fan coil units are adopted indoors. The results indicate that when ten reactors operate asynchronously, the output temperature of hot water fluctuates by as low as 1.4 °C. With four reactors in asynchronous operation, the temperature fluctuation range can be reduced to 3 °C, and 35 °C hot water enters the small temperature difference fan coil units to release heat to the indoor space. Additionally, the heating performance of the chemisorption heat pump is relatively stable in cold regions. When the evaporating temperature decreases from 5 °C to −15 °C, its energy efficiency is almost constant, about 1.47. Eventually, this chemisorption heat pump can shift electricity from peak periods to off-peak periods, and also saves 0.7 to 6.3 yuan per day in space heating cost in comparison to the conventional vapor-compression one.

MgCl2-MXene based nanohybrid composite for efficient thermochemical heat storage application

Thermochemical heat storage is a practical approach for overcoming the challenge in solar energy applications. Herein, we synthesize a novel MgCl2/MXene (Ti3C2Tx) composite sorbent by impregnation method for low-temperature thermochemical heat storage application. Various techniques, including Thermogravimetric coupled with Differential Scanning Calorimetric (TG-DSC), X-Ray, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were applied to characterize the mechanical and thermal properties of MgCl2/MXene composites. The result showed that Ti3C2Tx possess a larger specific surface area and the hydrophilic groups allow maximum MgCl2 adsorption without structural distortion. The TG-DSC studies showed that the fourth DSC peak of MgCl2 (181.33 °C) is shifted in composites MX/Mg 15 % (159.63 °C) and MX/Mg 10 %, (141.67 °C) toward lower dehydration temperature. The cyclicability study demonstrated that in the 10 consecutive rehydration cycles, MgCl2 shows 45 % decrease in the enthalpy, while Mg/MX 10 % and Mg/MX 15 % composites record 4 % and 10 % decrease, respectively. Water uptake kinetics highlighted that at 85 % RH, the highest water sorption was recorded for Mg/MX 15 % where it absorbs 2.21 g/g mass. The energy storage density result reveals that the maximum loading rate of MgCl2·6H2O reaches 97.6 wt% for Mg/MX 15 % showed the highest enthalpy 2227 J/g at 85 % RH. Therefore, all the results indicate that MXene-based salt composites play an important role in thermochemical heat storage application, leading to a potential candidate for long-term heat storage.

Experimental investigation on a strontium chloride/ammonia sorption heat storage system

• A thermochemical sorption heat storage system has been established. • The total highest heat storage density is 1871.03 kJ/kg SrCl 2 composite sorbent. • The total highest heat storage efficiency of the sorption system is 92.74%. Thermochemical sorption heat storage based on solid-gas interaction is considered as a cutting-edge technology for harvesting solar energy and industrial waste heat due to the significant advantages of high heat storage density, flexible working modes and long-term storage capacity with negligible heat loss. As a vital technology to enhance energy infrastructures, the thermochemical sorption heat storage has aroused extensive interest in the past decade. In this work, a solid-gas thermochemical sorption system was established and investigated for recovering the thermal energy. Working pair of strontium chloride/ammonia was selected, and strontium chloride composite sorbents were synthesized using the expanded graphite as matrix. The heat storage performances of strontium chloride/ammonia sorption system at the different temperatures were experimentally investigated. Under the condition of 92 °C charging temperature, 40 °C discharging temperature and -5 ℃ condensation/evaporation temperature, the highest sorption heat storage density of the sorption system obtained is up to 1630.78 kJ/kg SrCl 2 (or 1386.16 kJ/kg composite sorbent), and the total heat storage density can reach 2201.21 kJ/kg SrCl 2 (or 1871.03 kJ/kg composite sorbent). The total energy efficiency of the sorption system increases from 74.71% to 92.74% with the heat storage temperature rising from 68 ℃ to 92 ℃. Results indicated that strontium chloride and its composites are promising heat storage materials, and revealed great potentials of thermochemical sorption heat storage technology for rational and efficient utilization of thermal energy.

Composite sorbents from natural and man-made raw materials: optimization of composition for reclamation

Composite sorbents from natural and man-made raw materials: optimization of composition for reclamation

Experimental and numerical investigation of multistage sorption energy storage system

In this paper, thermal energy storage is utilized to store heat from solar energy and also use waste heat to counterbalance the demand and supply of energy. A laboratory multistage closed sorption thermal energy storage (STES) unit is designed and tested to study the performance of a cascade sorption system. The experimental unit consists of three sorbent reactors, an ammonia cycle, and an oil cycle. Composite sorbents namely, MnCl₂, CaCl₂, and Nh₄Cl are used with ammonia as sorbate. Expanded natural graphite (ENG) is mixed with sorbents to increase the thermal conductivity and improve the mass transfer performance of sorbents. Further, a computational fluid dynamic model using COMSOL Multiphysics is built to study the performance of triple, double, and single closed STES systems. For the triple experimental STES system, a charging temperature up to 155 °C is used. At Nh3 pressure of 7.5 bar, the discharging temperatures are found to be 132.9 °C, 99.1 °C, and 60.3 °C for MnCl₂-ENG , CaCl₂-ENG , and Nh₄Cl-ENG composite sorbents, respectively, while a total energy storage density (ESD) of 3474.28 kJ/kgsalt has been achieved. For a double experimental STES system, a charging temperature up to 105 °C is used. Discharging temperatures are found to be 95.3 °C and 60.1 °C for CaCl₂-ENG , and Nh₄Cl-ENG composite sorbents, respectively, and a total ESD of 2471.94 kJ/kgsalt is achieved at Nh3 pressure of 7 bar. A parametric study is carried out to study the effect of different parameters on the performance of STES system at different arrangements. Increasing the inlet oil temperature during discharge results in a reduction of total ESD. For the specified design condition, the optimum oil mass flow rate is found to be 0.04 kg/s to achieve the highest ESD.

Humidity capture and solar-driven water collection behaviors of alginate-g-PNIPAm-based hydrogel

Atmospheric water vapor, a ubiquitous and accessible clean water resource, is considered a promising freshwater alternative to alleviate water-deficient circumstances caused by nonnegligible pollution, climate change, and growing population. Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting, which uses sorbents to capture vapor from the air and thermal energy to release absorbed water, has demonstrated great feasibility for moisture collection. In this work, a flexible hybrid photothermal vapor sorbent composed of hydrogel matrix of sodium alginate grafted-poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (Alg-g-PNIPAm), deliquescent salt calcium chloride (CaCl2), and photothermal detonation nanodiamond (DND) was rationally synthesized. The composite sorbent showed water sorption of 1.85 g/g in 30 h at 80 % relative humidity and 25 °C. The absorbed water could be released under simulated sunlight by the photothermal conversion of DND and structural transformation of graft copolymer Alg-g-PNIPAm. Moreover, the hydrogel sorbent showed excellent reusability without apparent capacity fading. The polysaccharide-based hydrogel sorbent with super-elasticity and low cost has broad application prospects in effectively collecting moisture in the atmosphere.

Magnetic amino-sulfonic dual sorbent for uranyl sorption from aqueous solutions – Influence of light irradiation on sorption properties

The association of magnetite microparticles with bi-functional amino-sulfonate polymer (obtained by condensation of guanidine and amino hydroxynaphthalene sulfonic acid, mediated by formaldehyde) allows synthesizing a magnetic composite sorbent (M−GANS). The sorbent bearing both amine and sulfonate groups is efficient for uranyl sorption at pH 4–5. The sorption isotherms are successfully fitted by the Temkin equation, while kinetics is controlled by the pseudo-first order rate equation. The sorption properties are increased by UV irradiation in terms of both sorption capacity (by 25 %, up to 1.25 mmol U g−1) and kinetics. The sorption occurs on both amine and sulfonate groups; the improvement in sorption properties under UV irradiation is tentatively assigned to the photo-reduction of uranyl species (mediated by magnetite particles and amine groups from polymer layer). The UV irradiation improves the selectivity of M−GANS for uranium against other metal ions, tested on both synthetic and real solutions. This improvement can be correlated to the higher propensity of uranyl to be photo-reduced compared with investigated competitor ions. The recycling of the sorbent was successfully tested for five successive cycles of sorption and desorption (stably complete): the loss in sorption performances is slightly reduced (less than 1.5 % at the fifth cycle) under UV irradiation compared with experiments performed under dark conditions (loss close to 4.2 %). The uranium peroxide precipitate obtained at the end of the treatment of acid leachate of ore shows higher purity when UV irradiation was applied.

Magnetic-Field Assisted Gas Desorption from Fe2O3/Zeolite 13X Sorbent Monoliths for Biogas Upgrading

Magnetic induction has emerged as an attractive method for regenerating adsorbents during separation processes. In this work, we investigated the applicability of magnetic composite sorbents comprising Fe2O3 and zeolite 13X in biogas upgrading via a magnetic induction process. The sorbent materials with 10, 15, and 20 wt % Fe2O3 content were formulated into monolithic contactors via additive manufacturing and their physiochemical and magnetic properties were assessed accordingly. The effects of Fe2O3 particle size, magnetic field intensity, and monolith composition and configuration on CO2 and CH4 desorption rates as well as heating and cooling rates were systematically investigated. Our results indicated that 5 μm-size Fe2O3 with a loading of 20 wt % in the composite is the best performing material exhibiting heating, cooling, and desorption rates of 6.56 °C/min, 3.84 °C/min, and 0.25 mmol CO2/g min, respectively. It was also found that the layer-by-layer printing approach outperforms the homogenously mixed method in formulating magnetic monoliths by exhibiting heating, cooling, and desorption rates of 7.78 °C/min, 4.89 °C/min, and 0.376 mmol CO2/g min, respectively. Lastly, the advantage of induction heating over traditional heating in quickly regenerating the adsorbent was demonstrated. This work highlights the suitability of the induction heating method in upgrading biogas as a renewable source of energy.

Atmospheric water harvesting with scale‐up potentials using natural sunlight and passive cooling

AbstractSorption‐based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) is a promising technology that can potentially alleviate global shortages of water, especially in arid regions. However, current SAWH devices are difficult to scale up and exhibit significant disadvantages in terms of their cost, portability and efficiency. Herein, we report a portable and efficient atmospheric water‐harvesting device with scalable and low‐cost high‐performance lithium‐containing membrane‐encapsulated composite sorbents. We use the thermodynamic framework for moist air states to develop the device with a structure featuring hollow insulation grid that harnessed the large temperature difference between the sorbent and the condenser, and thus, the water yield of SAWH device was increased by 20.5%. In outdoor experiments, it achieved an ultra‐high water productivity of 34.8 gwater/kgdevice and 1399.28 gwater/(m2 day) and an exceptionally low water‐extraction cost of $2.65/kgwater per cycle. Thus, this scalable and efficient passive SAWH device demonstrates the possibility of achieving low‐cost and reliable water production in real scenarios and paves the way for practical applications of SAWH.Key points Water harvesting cost‐efficient sorbent Heat and moisture transfer optimization

Comparison of Oil Sorption Capacity of Nonwoven Sorbents

Oil sorption capacity is one of the essential parameters to evaluate the practical performances of oil sorbent products. This study aims to compare the dynamic oil sorption capacity of industrial nonwoven sorbents, which were fabricated through the carding process, spun-bond technology, and composite processes. The oil sorbents were produced by polypropylene fibers or cotton fibers with different surface wettability. The study showed that raw cotton layers exhibited a higher oil sorption capacity than the other three samples: eight-layer thermal-bonded melt-blown polypropylene fiber nonwoven, polypropylene fibers on top and bottom with raw cotton layers in the middle, and polypropylene fiber melt-blown nonwovens. Comparatively, eight-layer thermal-bonded melt-blown polypropylene fiber nonwoven had the lowest oil sorption capacity. Moreover, the hydrophilic property can significantly enhance the water pick-up capacity of sorbents on both dynamic and static systems but reduce the maximum oil sorption ability. Overall, the major factors determining a nonwoven fabric’s oil absorption performance are its fiber type, surface wettability, and hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity. Specifically, raw cotton, polypropylene fibers, or polypropylene fiber/cotton composite oil sorbents with low hydrophobicity and high hydrophobicity will contribute to high oil absorption ability. The advantage of raw cotton over polypropylene fibers is 3–7 times higher in oil absorption capability, environmentally friendliness, and sustainability, attributed to their hydrophobic ingredients, including pectin and waxes. From a structure angle, products with a loose structure and good mechanical properties ensure a balance between service life and oil absorption performance.

Compressible metal-organic framework-nanofibrous reinforced chitosan aerogel for efficient removal of Pb(II) ions

Herein, zirconium-based metal-organic-framework/nanofibrous reinforced chitosan (CS) aerogel of UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel with lightweight, compressible and efficient adsorption properties, was prepared through a facile blending method combining electrospinning, chemical crosslinking and freeze-drying technologies. UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel inherit large surface area and high porosities from feedstock MOFs, endowing lightweight property. The compressibility of CS aerogel is improved by incorporating polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. The structure of UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel and Pb (II) adsorption experiments are systematically characterized and investigated. UiO-66-NH 2 can preserve the micropore and accessibility in the composite aerogels compared with pure powdered forms, making the composite aerogels ideal sorbents for water purification. In the further removing Pb(II) experiments from wastewater, the saturated adsorption capacities of UiO-66-NH 2 and UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel for Pb(II) reach 143.05 and 113.64 mg/g, which are greatly higher than almost all other porous materials. The UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel also mainly relies on UiO-66-NH 2 to adsorb Pb(II). At the same time, the adsorption efficiency of UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel for Pb(II) is still more than 92.37% after 5 cycles of adsorption-desorption, indicating the excellent reusability. This study provides a general strategy to prepare excellent UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel with promising practical application potentials in the fields of water treatment. • Novel UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel was prepared with lightweight. • The crosslinked composite aerogel is compressible by incorporating PAN nanofibers. • Surface area of composite aerogel was increased due to massive loading of UiO-66-NH 2 . • The adsorption capacity of composite aerogel to Pb (II) was reached to 113.64 mg·g -1 . • The UiO-66-NH 2 /PANNs/CS aerogel exhibits superior regenerability.

Performance analysis of a lab-scale adsorption desalination system using silica gel/LiCl composite

Adsorption desalination is a novel technology to supply high-quality potable water driven by a low-temperature heat source. However, only a few composite sorbents, whose excellent performances have been demonstrated in other adsorption-based systems, have been applied in adsorption desalination (AD) systems. This study evaluated the performances of LiCl-silica gel (30 % wt) composite in a lab-scale AD system, realized by packing the sorbents beads inside a finned flat-tube heat exchanger. For the first time, the ad/desorption dynamics under various operating conditions were measured using a T-LTJ (thermal-large temperature jump) apparatus, which has not been employed for evaluation of desalination prototypes so far. The sorption dynamics was compared with silica gel, which is a standard material for AD systems. Results were used to calculate the maximum specific daily water production (SDWP) and optimized cycle time. Moreover, three design strategies of the AD system were proposed, including 2-beds, 3-beds and 4-beds. The 3-beds-configuration was selected for the composite sorbent, being able to reach an SDWP as high as 69 m3/tonne/day under the condition of Teva/cond = 20 °C and Tde = 80 °C. The optimized cycle time is dependent on operating conditions, varying in the range of 240–470 s.

Magnetic Nanosorbents Based on Bentonite and CoFe2O4 Spinel

New magnetic nanocomposite sorbents were obtained by doping natural bentonite with nanosized CoFe2O4 spinel (10 and 20 wt.%). Nanocrystals of cobalt ferrite were synthesized by a citrate burning method. The structure and physical-chemical properties of the composites were characterized by XRD, XRF, TEM, BET, FTIR and Faraday balance magnetometry. During the formation of nanocomposites, 10–30 nm particles of cobalt ferrite occupied mainly the interparticle space of Fe-aluminosilicate that significantly changed the particle morphology and composite porosity, but at the same time retained the structure of the 2:1 smectite layer. A combination of two functional properties of composites, adsorption and magnetism has been found. The adsorption capacity of magnetic nanosorbents exceeded this parameter for bentonite and spinel. Despite the decrease in the adsorption volume, pore size and specific surface area of the composite material relative to bentonite, the sorption activity of the composite increases by 12%, which indicated the influence of the magnetic component on the sorption process. FTIR data confirmed the mechanism of formaldehyde sorption by the composite sorbent. The production of a magnetic nanosorbent opens up new possibilities for controlling the sorption processes and makes it possible to selectively separate the sorbent from the adsorption medium by the action of a magnetic field.

Discharging performance prediction of experimentally tested sorption heat storage materials with machine learning method

In this study, the usability of the machine learning method in predicting the discharge performance of experimentally tested sorption heat storage materials was investigated. Experimental data was obtained from a lab scale fixed-bed thermochemical heat storage unit. 9 candidate composites were tested under different inlet conditions. Based on the experimental data, moisture sorption rates, heat output, exergy output and energy storage densities were determined. For the 6 cycles testing, highest average heat and exergy output were obtained with vermiculite/LiCl composite with the values of 0.83 kW and 0.013 kW, respectively. On the other hand, P-CaCl2 was found as the most durable material in terms of energy storage density (296 → 209 kWh/m3). A multilayer perceptron artificial neural network was established to evaluate measured data and its prediction performance was extensively studied. In the model 54 experimental data sets were utilized, consisting of 6 cycles testing of 9 different composite sorbents. Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was benefited as the training one in the artificial neural network model established and the Tan-Sig and Purelin functions were selected as the transfer one in the multilayer neural network with 7 neurons in the hidden layer. According to the mathematical definition of the discussed statistical metrics, experimental data were used to compare them to the predicted output in order to verify the reliability of the proposed ANN model; and the analysis of the model was performed by examining the coefficient of determination, mean squared error, and deviation values, which were assumed as performance parameters, in detail. The deviation rate between the prediction values acquired from the artificial neural network and the practical data was determined as less than ±5 %. The acquired findings showed that artificial neural networks, which is one of the common machine learning algorithms, is a preferable method that can be employed to estimate the discharge performance of sorption heat storage materials.

Removal of a mixture of Cs, Sr and Co cations from an aqueous solution using composite sorbents based on natural and synthetic zeolites

Removal of a mixture of Cs, Sr and Co cations from an aqueous solution using composite sorbents based on natural and synthetic zeolites

Appreciatively Efficient Sorption Achievement to U(VI) from the El Sela Area by ZrO2/Chitosan

The need to get uranium out of leaching liquid is pushing scientists to come up with new sorbents. This study uses the wet technique to improve the U(VI) sorption properties of ZrO2/chitosan composite sorbent. To validate the synthesis of ZrO2/CS composite with Zirconyl-OH, -NH, and -NH2 for U(VI) binding, XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, and BET are used to describe the ZrO2/chitosan wholly formed. To get El Sela leaching liquid, it used 150 g/L H2SO4, 1:4 S:L ratio, 200 rpm agitation speed, four hours of leaching period, and particle size 149–100 µm. In a batch study, the sorption parameters are evaluated at pH 3.5, 50 min of sorbing time, 50 mL of leaching liquid (200 mg/L U(VI)), and 25 °C. The sorption capability is 175 mg/g. Reusing ZrO2/CS for seven cycles with a slight drop in performance is highly efficient, with U(VI) desorption using 0.8 M acid and 75 min of desorption time. The selective U(VI) recovery from El Sela leachate was made possible using ZrO2/CS. Sodium diuranate was precipitated and yielded a yellow cake with a purity level of 94.88%.

Development of copper sulfide functionalized CeO2 nanoparticle for strengthened removal of gaseous elemental mercury from flue gas

The development of effective sorbents is of great significance for realizing the immobilization of gaseous elemental mercury from coal-fired flue gas. Herein, CuS/CeO2 composite sorbent was synthesized by a simple precipitation method for the removal of elemental mercury from flue gas. The ability of CuS/CeO2 to capture mercury at different temperatures and different flue gas components (HCl, SO2, O2 and NO) were tested. It indicates that CuS/CeO2 exhibits excellent Hg0 removal performance both at 60–150 °C and in different flue gas components. Moreover, the equilibrium adsorption capacity of CuS/CeO2 was 32.304 mg g−1 at 120 °C, which was 59.8 times that of CuS/GCN and 190 times that of ZnS modified activated carbon. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further verified that the synergistic relationship between defect oxygen and unsaturated sulfur sites on the surface promotes the Hg0 removal performance of CuS/CeO2. By virtue of these advantages, CuS/CeO2 is a prodigious candidate for the effective mercury removal from various types of industrial flue gases. This work may open-up new approaches for the development of heavy metal sorbents through the inter-doping of metal sulfides with transition metal oxides to enhance surface active sites to tune the adsorption capacity.