Facilely synthesized meso-macroporous polymer as support of poly(ethyleneimine) for highly efficient and selective capture of CO2

Fujian Liu, Kuan Huang, Chun Jae Yoo, Claudia Okonkwo, Duan Jian Tao, Christopher W. Jones, Sheng Dai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

Poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) impregnated adsorbents are promising alternatives to amine-based liquid absorbents for post-combustion capture of CO2. A current challenge is to identify meso- and/or macroporous supports with large pore volumes that can be facilely synthesized from a cost-effective approach as supports for PEI. In this work, hierarchically nanoporous poly(divinylbenzene) (PDVB) is synthesized through a one-step polymerization of readily available divinylbenzene (DVB) under solvothermal conditions without use of any template or catalyst. The synthesized PDVB is found to have abundant meso-macropores, as well as a large pore volume. Subsequently, a series of PEI-impregnated PDVB sorbents is prepared and their performance for the selective adsorption of CO2is investigated. The PEI-PDVB composites are found to exhibit promising CO2capacities and exceptionally high CO2/N2selectivities. The strength of CO2adsorption is experimentally determined by direct calorimetric measurements. The PEI-PDVB composites show excellent stability under both dry and humidified sorption conditions during extended adsorption-desorption cycles. Based on the results obtained, these PEI-PDVB composites are identified as sorbents with significant potential for application in practical CO2capture from industrial gas streams.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)466-476
Number of pages11
JournalChemical Engineering Journal
Volume314
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Funding

This work was supported as part of the Center for Understanding and Control of Acid Gas-Induced Evolution of Materials for Energy (UNCAGE-ME), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Award No. DE-SC0012577.

Keywords

  • COadsorption
  • Physical impregnation
  • Poly(divinylbenzene)
  • Poly(ethyleneimine)
  • Porous polymer
  • Selectivity

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