Hydrophobic Organic Hybrid Silica Gels with High Adsorption Selectivity for Fluorocarbon Solvents

The presence of moisture severely compromises the adsorption efficiency of porous materials in organic solvent recovery systems. To overcome this limitation, hydrophobic hybrid silica gels with tailored mesoporous structures were synthesized via a sol-gel approach. These materials exhibited narrow pore size distributions, high specific surface areas, and exceptional pore volumes. At 273 K, the optimized silica gel demonstrated a 174% increase in HFE-7200 adsorption capacity relative to commercial mesoporous activated carbon, along with a remarkable organic/water adsorption selectivity ratio of 6010-fold higher than conventional activated carbons (selectivity ratio = 6). This study provides a material design strategy for the energy-efficient recovery of high-value solvents in moisture-rich industrial exhaust environments.