Synthesis and characterization of advanced Ad-UiO-66@NGO composite for efficient CO capture and CO/N adsorption selectivity.

Highly effective adsorbents, with their impressive adsorption capacity and outstanding selectivity, play a pivotal role in technologies such as carbon capture and utilization in industrial flue gas applications, leading to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This study aims to synthesize advanced composites via solvothermal methods, incorporating a defective Zirconium-based MOF and amine-functionalized graphene oxide. The main objective is to enhance the CO adsorption capacity of the composite and improve its CO/N separation selectivity. The samples were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, TGA, FE-SEM, and nitrogen adsorption and desorption analysis. The composites' gas uptake capacity toward pure CO and N adsorption were tested at various temperatures and pressure ranges of 1-9 bar. The resulting amino-defective UiO-66/NGO composite containing 15 wt% of amine-modified GO, displayed the highest CO uptake capacity of 15.13 mmol/g at 298 K and 9 bar, representing a remarkable 48% increase compared to the pristine MOF. Furthermore, isotherm and kinetic modeling showed a high level of agreement between the experimental data and the Freundlich and Elovich models, as indicated by their R values of 0.998 and 0.973, respectively. Moreover, the thermodynamic evaluation confirmed the exothermic and the spontaneity of the reaction. Furthermore, the adsorbent's CO/N selectivity was evaluated using the ideal adsorbed solution theory, revealing a remarkable selectivity value of 148. The regenerability evaluation through cyclic adsorption experiments showed that the optimized composite maintained CO adsorption reversibility at over 81.50% after 55 adsorption-desorption cycles.