Volume 21, Issue 2, 2012

Letter: POLYETHYLENIMINE-SILICA MESOPOROUS HYBRID: A NOVEL ADSORBENT FOR CO₂ CAPTURE

Xin Fua*^a

^aCollege of Chemistry and Life Science, Weinan Teachers University, Weinan 714000, PR China, Tel: +86-913 2136930; Fax: +86-913 2133917, Email Address: fuxin0117@163.com

Received: 30 November 2011; 30 March 2012

ABSTRACT

A facile pathway has been developed to synthesize polyethylenimine-modified mesoporous hybrid materials with highly efficient CO₂ capturer. It is the special feature of this pathway that there are no surfactants introduced and the amine guest can be dispersed within the channels of the silica materials during the hydrolysis and polycondensation process. The obtained materials exhibit high specific surface areas, high porosity and high CO₂ uptake. The amount of polyethylenimine (PEI) has important effect on the surface area, pore size and CO₂ adsorption capacity of the adsorbents. For the sample containing 50 wt% PEI, the adsorbent exhibits a high adsorption capacity of 186.6 mg/g-PEI, and in situ FTIR show that CO₂ is sorbed on amine sites through the formation of alkylammonium carbamates. The adsorbed CO₂ could be desorbed completely from the sample at 150 ^oC. Moreover, the adsorbents show a stable cyclic adsorption-desorption performance.

Keywords:CO₂ adsorbent; Adsorption; Polyethyleniminee.