High mechanical performance Cu-intercalated layered h-BN/N-doped carbon-nanofiber composite films for selective adsorption desulphurization

Abstract

Abstract The Cu-intercalated layered h-BN/N-doped carbon-nanofiber composite films (PAN-Cu/ABN-CNFs) were successfully prepared by the combination of the electrospinning technique and the one-pot carbonization process, using the mixed solution of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and Cu-intercalated activated boron nitride (Cu/ABN) as carbon precursor. A series of characterizations proved that the PAN-Cu/ABN-CNFs possessed the distinguished merits in the structure and composition, such as the pore feature of the micropore (0.076\xa0cm3/g)-mesoporous (0.3582\xa0cm3/g) structure, the structure of the exfoliated h-BN nanosheets, the low-coordination high-content N (11.65\xa0at%) and the existence of self-reducing Cu nanoparticles (0.5\xa0at%). For adapting the actual application, the mechanical properties of the PAN-Cu/ABN-CNFs were comprehensively evaluated, showing that the PAN-Cu/ABN-CNFs films had the robust tensile strength and bending properties as well as the desirable wear resistance. Furthermore, the selective adsorption desulphurization of the PAN-Cu/ABN-CNFs were examined by the selective adsorption removal of thiophene (TH) from the simulated oil, indicating that the optimum adsorption capacity of the fresh films was up to 78.38\xa0mg/g in 800\xa0mg/L initial concentration and the adsorption capacity after the four-time regeneration recycling still approached 74.894\xa0mg/g. Finally, the adsorption kinetics, isotherm and thermodynamic studies suggested that the adsorption behavior of TH over the PAN-Cu/ABN-CNFs should be better described by the correlation coefficients of Avrami fractional-order kinetics and Liu isotherm, while the thermodynamic studies showed a favorable exothermic and spontaneous adsorption mechanism.