Graphene modified Cu-BTC with high stability in water and controllable selective adsorption of various gases

The copper-benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (Cu-BTC) attracts increasing attention because of its large BET surface area available for the adsorption of gases. However, low stability in water creates a barrier for its potential applications. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) are adopted to modify the Cu-BTC. The influence of GO and RGO on the resulting BET surface area, pore diameter distribution, morphology and yield of the Cu-BTC are revealed. It is found that the adsorption abilities of the resulting composites for the polar and nonpolar gas molecules are closely related to the presence at surface of the functional groups of the used graphene samples, which provides a potential method to achieve selective adsorption. Furthermore, the preparation processes of the GO/Cu-BTC and RGO/Cu-BTC exert a significant effect on the performances of the resulting product, which is also studied in detail.