Zeolites have been recognized as one type of the most promising adsorbents for capturing volatile organic compounds (VOCs, e.g., toluene), but their performance suffers severely from water vapor under wet conditions. In this contribution, we demonstrated that the hydrophobicity of microporous zeolites can be significantly improved by coating vertically aligned LDH nanoplatelets when the contact angle is increased from 16.5-20.1° to 44.4-64.2°. The toluene adsorption capacity of such synthesized zeolite@LDH core@shell composites in wet conditions can thus be largely enhanced when the breakthrough time is increased from 6.4-10.8 to 20.1-27.5 min.
Keywords: VOCs adsorption; core−shell composites; effect of water vapor; hydrophobic zeolites; layered double hydroxides.