The structural feature of Ni-Al-LDH nanosheets and their adsorption performance for ethyl mercaptan from methane gas

Two-dimensional nanomaterials of Ni-Al layered double hydroxide nanosheets (Ni-Al-LDH-NS) were fabricated using an exfoliation process with formamide as the pillaring agent. XRD, FT-IR, LRS, N-2 adsorption-desorption, XPS, and SEM were used to study their structure and morphology. The adsorption of ethyl mercaptan (EM) on Ni-Al-LDH-NS was investigated by an adsorption experiment on a fixed bed adsorption apparatus and density functional theory calculations (DFT). The characterization analysis indicates that Ni-Al-LDH-NS presents a uniform sheet structure with a specific surface area of 266.94 m(2) g(-1). An EM breakthrough adsorption capacity up to 229.95 mg g(-1) was found in the absorption experiment using the Ni-Al-LDH-NS. DFT calculations indicate that EM is mainly adsorbed on Ni-Al-LDH-NS through coordination bonds, in which the S -> Ni coordination bond plays a major role, and its coordination bonds interact with the Ni 3d orbital through the S 3p orbital. In addition, differences in adsorption performance between Ni-Ti-LDH-NS and Ni-Al-LDH-NS were investigated via studying host-guest interactions and structural properties.