Renewable Lanthanide Ionic Liquid/Polymer Composites for High-Efficient Adsorption of Particulate Matter

Particulate matter (PM) in air pollution is becoming a serious environmental threat to public health globally. The removal of PM, particularly the most harmful PM2.5, is a great challenge for industrialized countries. Hybrid polymer materials have extensive applications in many areas. Herein, types of hybrid polymers obtained from lanthanide ionic liquids and polyvinyl pyrrolidone have excellent PM adsorption capacity especially for PM2.5. The highest adsorption efficiency can exceed 99% for both PM2.5 and PM10. The removal efficiency of PM can be maintained above 90% for 15 h, which can be recycled more than five times without the decline of adsorption efficiency. An introduced luminescent lanthanide can be used to survey the adsorption process by the change of fluorescence intensity. After simple treatment, the PM adsorption capacity of the hybrid polymer can be recovered to be similar with the new one. Besides, the hybrid polymers have favorable thermal stability to adapt to different working conditions. Therefore, the hybrid polymers have potential applications in a high-efficiency and environmental friendly PM removal filter.