Interfacial Growth of Metal Organic Framework/Graphite Oxide Composites through Pickering Emulsion and Their CO₂ Capture Performance in the Presence of Humidity

Abstract

We proposed an in situ interfacial growth method induced by the Pickering emulsion strategy to produce metal organic framework (MOF)/graphite oxide (GO) composites of Cu3(BTC)2/GO, in which GO was demonstrated to be a promising stabilizer for producing the Pickering emulsion and provided a large interfacial area for the in situ growth of Cu3(BTC)2 nanoparticles. When Cu3(BTC)2/GO composites were used as adsorbents for CO2 capture from the simulated humid flue gas, they showed both significantly improved thermodynamic and dynamic properties. Because most of the H2O molecules were adsorbed on the highly exfoliated GO sheets in Cu3(BTC)2/GO-m, CO2 uptake reached 3.30 mmol/g after exposure to the simulated flue gas for 60 min and remained unchanged for up to 120 min. This highlighted its potential application for real CO2 capture. More importantly, the in situ interfacial growth of nanoparticles induced by Pickering emulsions would be a promising strategy for designing and fabricating nanocomposites.