In this study, UiO-66-NH2 was synthesized and incorporated with graphene aerosol (UiO-66-NH2/GA) and ethylenediamine functionalized graphene oxide (UiO-66-NH2/GO-NH2). These composites were characterized using infrared spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible light spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. UiO-66-NH2/GO-NH2 exhibited 93% adsorption of quinoline in 5 h, UiO-66-NH2 and UiO-66-NH2/GA presented 80.4% and 86.5%, respectively. The high adsorption observed on UiO-66-NH2/GO-NH2 was attributed to the unique electronic properties, and hydrogen bonding between the nitrogen atom of quinoline and NH2- phenyl fragment of UiO-66-NH2, and N–H of ethylenediamine. GO also offered combined strong π–π interactions on its surface, and the oxygen coverage (~ 50%) on GO within the structure is responsible for the formation of strong hydrogen bonds with quinoline. Theoretical calculation suggested that UiO-66-NH2/GO-NH2 presented a more favourable adsorption energy (− 18.584 kcal/ mol) compared to UiO-66-NH2 (− 16.549 kcal/mol) and UiO-66-NH2/GA (− 13.991 kcal/mol). These results indicate that nanocomposites have a potential application in quinoline capture technologies in the process of adsorptive denitrogenation.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experiment section
        2.1 Chemicals
        2.2 Material synthesis
        2.3 Quinoline adsorption
        2.4 Kinetics analysis
        2.5 Computational methods
        2.6 Characterization
    3 Results and discussion
        3.1 FT-IR analysis
        3.2 UV–Vis and band gap analysis
        3.3 P-XRD analysis
        3.4 SEM
        3.5 EDX
        3.6 BET surface area
        3.7 Quinoline uptake studies
        3.8 Theoretical studies
    4 Conclusion
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• Mathule Mokgohloa(Department of Chemistry, Nelson Mandela University)
• Adeniyi S. Ogunlaja(Department of Chemistry, Nelson Mandela University)