Prussian blue analogs (PBAs) have been reported as promising ammonia (NH3) adsorbents with a high capacity compared to activated carbon, zeolite, and ion exchange resins. The adsorbed NH3 was desorbed by heating and washing with water or acid. Recently, we demonstrated that desorption was also possible by washing with a saturated ammonium hydrogen carbonate solution (sat. NH4HCO3aq) and recovered NH3 as an NH4HCO3 solid by introducing CO2 into the washing liquid after desorption. However, this has only been proven for copper ferrocyanide and the relationship between the adsorption/desorption behavior and metal ions in PBAs has not been identified. In this study, we investigated the adsorption/desorption behavior of PBAs that are complexes of first row transition metals with hexacyanometalate anions. Six types of PBAs were tested in this study and copper ferricyanide exhibited the highest desorption/adsorption ratio. X-ray diffraction results revealed high structural stability for cobalt hexacyanocobaltate (CoHCC) and nickel ferricyanide (NiHCF). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results showed that the NH3 adsorbed on the vacancy sites tended to desorb compared to the NH3 adsorbed on the interstitial sites as ammonium ions. Interestingly, the desorption/adsorption ratio exhibited the Irving-Williams order.
Keywords: Prussian blue analogs; adsorption; ammonia; ammonium hydrogen carbonate.