Fabrication of Functionalized Porous Silica Nanocapsules with a Hollow Structure for High Performance of Toluene Adsorption-Desorption

Junjie Chen; Chao Sun; Zhen Huang; Feng Qin; Hualong Xu; Wei Shen

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b03982

Fabrication of Functionalized Porous Silica Nanocapsules with a Hollow Structure for High Performance of Toluene Adsorption-Desorption

ACS Omega. 2020 Mar 11;5(11):5805-5814. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b03982. eCollection 2020 Mar 24.

Authors

Junjie Chen¹, Chao Sun¹, Zhen Huang¹, Feng Qin¹, Hualong Xu¹, Wei Shen¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.

Abstract

Functionalized mesoporous silicas are an emerging kind of adsorbents for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Breaking the limitations of traditional mesoporous silica, in this study, porous silica nanocapsules (PSNs) functionalized with phenyl and n-octyl groups (named as p-PSN and n-PSN, respectively) were developed for the first time. Under dry conditions, the PSNs exhibited highest dynamic adsorption capacity and desorption efficiency among the ever-reported typical adsorbents (i.e., SBA-15, KIT-6, silicalite-1, and activated carbon). Under wet conditions, the functionalized PSNs made up the defects of pure PSNs, displaying excellent hydrophobicity. The Q _WET for n-PSN and p-PSN increased by 44 and 76%, respectively, as compared with that of pure PSNs in 50% relative humidity. The Henry constant of static adsorption demonstrated that p-PSN had a better capture ability for toluene, which was owing to the π-interaction between the phenyl groups and the toluene molecules. In addition, p-PSN showed considerable stability after six consecutive dynamic adsorption-desorption cycles in 50% relative humidity.