Sustainable CO2 Adsorbents Prepared by Coating Chitosan onto Mesoporous Silicas for Large-Scale Carbon Capture Technology

Sustainable CO2 Adsorbents Prepared by Coating Chitosan onto Mesoporous Silicas for Large-Scale Carbon Capture Technology

Type	Journal Article
Author	Gregor Sneddon
Author	Alexey Y. Ganin
URL	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ente.201402211/abstract
Volume	3
Issue	3
Pages	249-258
Publication	Energy Technology
Date	March 1, 2015
Abstract	Describes a novel sustainable synthesis procedure for manufacturing chitosan/silica CO2 adsorbents. Chitosan is a naturally abundant material, containing amine functionality, which is essential for selective CO2 adsorptions. Consequently, it is well suited for manufacturing CO2 adsorbents on a large scale. By coating chitosan onto high-surface-area mesoporous silica supports, including commercial fumed silica, an economical and accessible reagent, and synthetic SBA-15 and MCF silicas, researchers fabricated a new family of CO2 adsorbents, which they characterized with nitrogen adsorption isotherms, thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry, TEM, FTIR spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. These adsorbents achieved a significant CO2 adsorption capacity of up to 0.98 mmol g−1 at ambient conditions. The materials can also be fully regenerated/recycled on demand at temperatures as low as 75 °C with a >85 % retention of the adsorption capacity after 4 cycles, making them promising candidates for advanced CO2 capture, storage and utilization technology.