Mechanical stability
and multicycle durability are essential for
emerging solid sorbents to maintain an efficient CO
2
adsorption
capacity and reduce cost. In this work, a strong foam-like composite
is developed as a CO
2
sorbent by the in situ growth of
thermally stable and microporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in
a mesoporous cellulose template derived from balsa wood, which is
delignified by using sodium chlorite and further functionalized by
2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation. The
surface carboxyl groups in the TEMPO-oxidized wood template (TO-wood)
facilitate the coordination of the cellulose network with multivalent
metal ions and thus enable the nucleation and in situ growth of MOFs
including copper benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate [Cu
3
(BTC)
2
], zinc 2-methylimidazolate, and aluminum benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate.
The TO-wood/Cu
3
(BTC)
2
composite shows a high
specific surface area of 471 m
2
g
–1
and
a high CO
2
adsorption capacity of 1.46 mmol g
–1
at 25 °C and atmospheric pressure. It also demonstrates high
durability during the temperature swing cyclic CO
2
adsorption/desorption
test. In addition, the TO-wood/Cu
3
(BTC)
2
composite
is lightweight but exceptionally strong with a specific elastic modulus
of 3034 kN m kg
–1
and a specific yield strength
of 68 kN m kg
–1
under the compression test. The
strong and durable TO-wood/MOF composites can potentially be used
as a solid sorbent for CO
2
capture, and their application
can possibly be extended to environmental remediation, gas separation
and purification, insulation, and catalysis.