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.