Composites obtained from carbon molecular sieves and copper oxide

The study of carbon–metal composites constitutes a domain of great interest in materials science. These composites are used in an important and practical technologies. A process is described for preparing a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) that is suitable as support for metals. The objective was to develop sorbents capable of removing oxygen from gas mixtures at elevated temperature (>200 °C). The approach was to incorporate copper in elementary form in the CMSs obtained from walnut shells. The resulting composite derives the molecular sieving properties from the carbon and catalytically enhanced oxygen sorption property from highly dispersed copper. When the temperature is significantly above the room temperature, the physical adsorption for most gases on all the sorbents is considered negligible. However, the copper-containing sorbents upon reduction can provide oxygen chemisorption sites. These series of composites are used in different applications for purification catalysis, chemical recovery, etc.