In Situ Cu-Loaded Porous Boron Nitride Nanofiber as an Efficient Adsorbent for CO2 Capture

Porous boron nitride (BN) materials have been considered as a promising material for CO2 capture and storage. It was found that the Cu2+ ion can modify the nucleation mechanism during the synthetic reaction between boric acid and melamine leading to the formation of Cu-loaded BN nanofibers with uniform and smaller diameter. Interestingly, the introduction of Cu was found to dramatically enhance the CO2 adsorption capacity of the BN nanofibers from 1.34 to 2.77 mmol g–1 (at 1 bar, 273 K). The Cu-loaded BN nanofiber not only shows a CO2 adsorption capacity comparable to those of state-of-the-art BN-based CO2 absorbents but also shows unprecedented high recyclability for repeated uses. The mechanisms of the copper-induced CO2 adsorption capacity enhancement were investigated with density-functional theory calculations. It was found that the incorporation of Cu can change the electron transfer between porous BN and CO2 to promote the affinity and adsorption capacity of CO2.