Ionic Liquid Modified Inorganic Nanoparticles for Gaseous Phenol Adsorption

Ionic liquid modified silica nanoparticles were synthesized using a simple silane chemistry, followed by substitution reaction. The phenol adsorption performance was tested using temperature programmed desorption technique. The experimental results reveal that the introduction of ionic liquids on the surface of silica nanoparticles can improve the adsorption capacity of phenol compared to the pure silica nanoparticles. The initial adsorption capacity reaches 0.312 mmol·g−1 at 25 °C under total pressure of 0.2 bar and it decreases slightly in the following adsorption-desorption cycles. The results demonstrate that introduction of ionic liquids can improve the phenol adsorption capacity and the simple material preparation process is feasible for industrial applications.