Convenient synthesis of novel Cu2O/Cu@C/SiO2 composite from rice-husk for efficient iodine gas capture

Novel Cu2O/Cu@C/SiO2 materials with low cost were conveniently synthesized using C/SiO2 derived from rice-husk as support and used for iodine gas adsorption. The iodine adsorption behaviors affected by Cu content, contact time and temperature were investigated. The adsorption capacity as high as 820 mg/g was achieved benefiting from the synergistic effect between Cu2O/Cu and C/SiO2. The results demonstrated that both Cu2O and Cu changed to CuI after iodine adsorption, indicating that the dominant adsorption mechanism was chemical reaction through formation of CuI. This work revealed that the obtained Cu2O/Cu@C/SiO2 could be included in the list of candidate iodine gas adsorbents.