Enhancement of CO₂ adsorption and separation in basic ionic liquid/ZIF-8 with core-shell structure

A novel strategy was proposed to improve the performance of gas separation in nano-materials, by fabricating a core-shell structure out of the basic ionic liquid ([Emim]2[IDA]) and zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8). The [Emim]2[IDA]/ZIF-8 exhibits a remarkable CO2 adsorption capacity of 14 cm³ g^-1 at 298 K and 20 kPa, the ideal selectivity of CO2/N2 is as high as 10⁴ and CO2/CH4 is 348 at 298 K and 100 kPa, which are much higher than the CO2 adsorption capacity (4.3 cm³ g^-1) and the selectivity (SCO2/N2 = 7.4, SCO2/CH4 = 2.7) of ZIF-8. This work could pave the way for designing advanced nanostructures tailored for gas separation.