CO2 adsorption performance of CuBTC/graphene aerogel composites

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been recognized as promising adsorbents for carbon capture due to their ultrahigh surface areas and tunable properties. However, a majority of MOFs have strict requirements for preparation and high mass transfer resistance that limits the gas separation time. In order to improve the applicability of MOFs to practical applications, herein, we reported an experimental approach to prepare structured CuBTC/graphene aerogel (GA) composites using ionic liquid (IL) additives (CuBTC/GA-IL) at room temperature for CO 2 capture. The material was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), specific surface area analysis, and CO 2 adsorption tests. It was demonstrated that CuBTC/GA-IL exhibited the higher CO 2 uptake than CuBTC/GA prepared without IL additives. Besides, the breakthrough experiments have shown that CuBTC/GA-IL exhibited the lower mass transfer resistance compared with CuBTC-IL and good cyclability. The effective approach of fabricating CuBTC into GA using IL additives to improve CO 2 adsorption in this study may be extensively applied for other MOF-based composites. Graphical abstract