Highly efficient capture of iodine by Cu/MIL-101

In order to improve the uptake capacity of MIL-101 for iodine, Cu nanoparticles doped MIL-101 were successfully synthesized through a facile method. The obtained Cu/MIL-101 was characterized by SEM, XRD, EDS, TEM, IR, TGA and BET to examine the chemical and thermal stabilities. The capture experiments for the adsorbents showed that the capture capacity of Cu/MIL-101 for volatile iodine is 342 wt%, which is higher than that of pure MIL-101. An I₂ uptake of 342 wt% is the highest value reported among metal-organic frameworks. Furthermore, Cu/MIL-101 has a cycle ratio of 95% after three cycles and exhibits a better cyclicity than pure MIL-101. Meanwhile, Cu/MIL-101 shows an excellent reversible adsorption of iodine in solution.