Metal recovery from electronic waste and industrial wastewater has attracted increasing attention to recycle precious metals and inhibit the emission of hazardous heavy metals. However, the selective recovery of precious metals with a large quantity is still very challenging because wastewater contains a variety of different cations while precious metal ions are relatively scarce. Here, we introduce a simple method to selectively increase the adsorption of gold ions using tannin-coated porous polymer microspheres through photochemical reduction. Mesoporous poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate-co-acrylonitrile) microspheres with an average pore diameter of 13.8 nm were synthesized and used as an adsorbent matrix. Tannic acid (TA) was deposited onto the internal pores of the polymer matrix by simple immersion in an aqueous milieu. TA coatings increased the maximum number of adsorbed gold ions by 1.3 times because of the well-known metal ion chelation of TA. Under light illumination, the maximum number of adsorbed gold ions dramatically increased by 6.1 times. We examined two distinct mechanisms presumably involved in the enhanced adsorption: the photooxidation of TA and plasmon-induced hot electrons. Moreover, TA-coated microspheres exhibited remarkable selectivity for gold ions among competing metal ions commonly found in waste resources. This work suggests that the photochemically activated TA can serve as an excellent adsorbent for the selective and efficient recovery of gold ions from wastewater.
Sustainable porous polymer catalyst for size-selective cross-coupling reactions
A new, high surface area, nanoporous polymer (COP-220) was synthesized using sustainable building blocks, namely, a food coloring dye (erythrosine B) and a commercial alkyne. During the Sonogashira coupling, it is observed that Pd and Cu ions and triphenylphosphine ligands of the catalyst get trapped inside the pores. The remnant synthesis catalyst components were characterized in detail and were tested as a new catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions. COP-220 showed conversion yields comparable to the commercial homogeneous catalyst Pd(PPh3)2Cl2 with an additional advantage of size-dependent catalytic activity when bulkier substrates were used. COP-220 was highly stable under thermal and chemical treatments and recyclable with no loss of activity. These findings show a clear need for extensive characterization of nanoporous polymers made through cross-coupling reactions and the potential of the trapped catalysts for new catalytic activity without additional loading.
Radioactive Strontium removal from seawater by a MOF via two-step ion exchange
Radioactive waste, such as 90Sr, 134Cs, and 131I, from the Fukushima nuclear spill highlighted the need to find effective adsorbents for scrubbing radioactive ions from seawater. In this issue of Chem, Wang and colleagues report a remarkably 90Sr-selective metal-organic framework (SZ-4) that operates with a two-step ion-exchange mechanism and at a wide pH range while being active and intact when tested in actual seawater.
Nanoporous polymer microspheres with nitrile and amidoxime functionalities for gas capture and precious metal recovery from e‑waste
Nanoporous materials could offer sustainable solutions to gas capture and precious metal recovery from electronic waste. Despite this potential, few reports combine target functionalities with physical properties such as morphology control. Here, we report a nanoporous polymer with microspherical morphology that could selectively capture gold from a mixture of 15 common transition metals. When its nitriles are converted into amidoxime, the capacity increases more than 20-fold. Amidoximes are also very effective in CO2 binding and show a record high CO2/CH4 selectivity of 24 for potential use in natural gas sweetening. The polymer is successfully synthesized in 1 kg batches starting from sustainable inexpensive building blocks without the need for costly catalysts. Because the morphology is controlled from the beginning, the nanoporous materials studied in lab scale could easily be moved into respective industries.
A combined experimental and theoretical study on gas adsorption performance of amine and amide porous polymers
R. Ullah, H. A. Patel, S. Aparicio, C. T. Yavuz, M. Atilhan
In this manuscript, we report synthesis, characterization and application of amine and amide type covalent organic frameworks as CO2 adsorbent materials at various isotherms and wide pressure conditions. Furthermore, we also report a detailed density functional theory investigation of the studied adsorbents in order to explain their adsorption behaviors and provide comparisons with experimental results. The objective of this work was to investigate custom design porous polymers by building amine and amide functionalities in the final structures, whether they have efficient CO2 capturing performances at wide process conditions that covers both low and high pressure end applications to cover either pre- or post-combustion processes. On the other hand, energy storage performances of these materials were tested by performing H2 sorption experiments as well. Two porous polymers, namely COP-9 and COP-10, were characterized with BET, TGA and FTIR to evaluate the physical properties of studied porous polymers and then were tested for CO2, N2 and H2 adsorption both at low and high pressures. Studied materials were found to have compelling adsorption capacity mostly at high pressures and have very good selectivity for CO2/N2 and CO2/H2 respectively.
Structural Elucidation of Covalent Organic Polymers (COP) and Their Linker Effect on Gas Adsorption Performance via Density Functional Theory Approach
Investigation of the binding affinity gases on porous adsorbents are important for establishing understanding of effective carbon dioxide adsorption and design target specific sorbents for capturing hazardous gases for environmental protection and fuel upgrading. A Density Functional Theory (DFT) study that highlights the impact of covalent organic polymer (COP) design has been conducted to explain the molecular and electronic structure, investigate the interaction sites and elucidate the experimental findings on carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2) sorption on these porous structures. DFT calculations were used to infer the details of the type and the strength of the polymer – gas interaction modes at various interaction sites as well as to quantify short-range interactions between the polymer – gas via topological characteristics analysis of intermolecular forces. Results obtained in this study were used to shed light on CO2 and N2 affinity of the studied polymer structures; interpretations regarding to the macroscopic behaviors were discussed and conclusions were at
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