Cu, Zn-embedded MOF-derived bimetallic porous carbon for adsorption desulfurization

In this work, a metal organic framework (MOF)-restricted high-temperature carbonization autoreduction strategy was employed for the preparation of Cu, Zn-embedded porous carbon (marked as CuZn@C) via carbonizing a ZIF-8 pre-grown on CuO nanosheets. Resulting Cu(I) sites reduced from Cu(II) by using the method were homogeneously dispersed and embedded in the carbon matrix derived from the ZIF-8, which effectively formed pi-complexation with thiophenic sulfur compounds, facilitating the improvement of adsorption desulfurization (ADS) performances. Accordingly, the obtained CuZn@C-0.05, provided with good porous structures, high surface area, large pore volume and uniformly distributed bimetallic active sites, exhibited a remarkable adsorption capacity of DBT (60 mg g(-1)). In addition, pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir models presented best fitting results for DBT adsorbing on the adsorbent CuZn@C-0.05. Simultaneously, the adsorbent also revealed excellent reusability with the slight decrement of 8.4 mg g(-1) after the fifth recycle, further indicating its great potential as a high-efficient and stable adsorbent for ADS.