Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol.361, 139-147, 2019
Nanoconfinement of Ag nanoparticles inside mesoporous channels of MCM-41 molecule sieve as a regenerable and H2O resistance sorbent for Hg-0 removal in natural gas
A facile passivation treatment and amino functionalized method was developed for controllable synthesis of effective and water-resistant Ag/MCM-41 composite sorbent for Hg-0 removal in natural gas. The Ag nanoparticles were successively confined inside the mesoporous channels of MCM-41 molecule sieve with an average diameter of 3 nm. The synthesized sorbent was found to achieve a complete removal of Hg-0 at high space velocity of 50,000 h(-1) in ambient temperature. At 5% breakthrough, the Hg-0 capture capacity of 1% (wt%) silver loaded Ag/MCM-41 was as high as 6.64 mg.g(-1), which is much higher than the sample of Ag loaded outside of the pore channels (S-Ag/MCM-41) and other existing commercial sorbents. The H2O has negligible inhibitory effect on Hg-0 removal performance of Ag/MCM-41. In addition, the spent Ag/MCM-41 could be easily regenerated without significant performance degradation over five cycles. We considered the high Hg-0 capture efficiency, large adsorption capacity and excellent regeneration performance of Ag/MCM-41 are contributed to the nanoconfinement effect of mesoporous channels of MCM-41 molecule sieve which effectively prevented the growth and agglomeration of Ag nanoparticles. The good hydrophobicity of Ag/MCM-41 is beneficial for the high resistance to H2O. This work represents a giant step toward the preparation of effective sorbent for practical applications of Hg-0 removal in natural gas.