Facile preparation of CuCl@USY adsorbent with excellent carbon monoxide selective adsorption performance from gas mixtures

Cu(I) based adsorbents are effective materials for selectively adsorbing and separating CO from mixed gases. Currently, for the fabrication of Cu(I) based adsorbents using divalent copper salts as precursors, the commonly used reducing gases of H2 and CO are expensive, and their strong reduction ability can easily lead to excessive reduction of Cu2+ ions to elemental copper. Herein, a series of Cu(I) based ultrastable Y (USY) zeolite adsorbents (CuCl@USY) were facilely prepared using CuCl2 as the precursor and various easily available solid species as reducing agents. Activated carbon was screened as a suitable solid reducing agent, and the precursor CuCl2 were successfully activated to active components CuCl and dispersed well on the surface of Y zeolite support at 643 K in the N2 atmosphere. The optimized CuCl@USY adsorbent exhibits an excellent CO adsorption capacity of 2.92 mmol/g at 303 K and 500 kPa. In addition, the adsorbent displays the high CO adsorption selectivity towards CO2, CH4 and N2. The excellent CO adsorption performance as well as the good reusability and regeneration ability make the prepared CuCl@USY a promising adsorbent for the efficient CO adsorption and separation from gas mixture. [Display omitted] •CuCl@USY adsorbents are facilely prepared using CuCl2 precursor and activated carbon activator.•CuCl(5.0)@USY achieves an excellent CO adsorption capacity of 2.92 mmol/g at 303 K.•The adsorbent exhibits a high CO adsorption selectivity and good reversibility.•The deactivated adsorbents by oxidation can be well regenerated through activation.