David G. Madden

Direct Air Capture of CO2 by Physisorbent Materials

Sequestration of CO2, either from gas mixtures or directly from air (direct air capture, DAC), could mitigate carbon emissions. Here five materials are investigated for their ability to adsorb CO2 directly from air and other gas mixtures. The sorbents studied are benchmark materials that encompass four types of porous material, one chemisorbent, TEPA-SBA-15 (amine-modified mesoporous silica) and four physisorbents: Zeolite 13X (inorganic); HKUST-1 and Mg-MOF-74/Mg-dobdc (metal-organic frameworks, MOFs); SIFSIX-3-Ni, (hybrid ultramicroporous material). Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments afforded information about the contents of each sorbent under equilibrium conditions and their ease of recycling. Accelerated stability tests addressed projected shelf-life of the five sorbents. The four physisorbents were found to be capable of carbon capture from CO2-rich gas mixtures, but competition and reaction with atmospheric moisture significantly reduced their DAC performance.

Tuning Pore Size in Square‐Lattice Coordination Networks for Size‐Selective Sieving of CO2

Porous materials capable of selectively capturing CO2 from flue-gases or natural gas are of interest in terms of rising atmospheric CO2 levels and methane purification. Size-exclusive sieving of CO2 over CH4 and N2 has rarely been achieved. Herein we show that a crystal engineering approach to tuning of pore-size in a coordination network, [Cu(quinoline-5-carboxyate)2 ]n (Qc-5-Cu) ena+bles ultra-high selectivity for CO2 over N2 (SCN ≈40 000) and CH4 (SCM ≈3300). Qc-5-Cu-sql-β, a narrow pore polymorph of the square lattice (sql) coordination network Qc-5-Cu-sql-α, adsorbs CO2 while excluding both CH4 and N2 . Experimental measurements and molecular modeling validate and explain the performance. Qc-5-Cu-sql-β is stable to moisture and its separation performance is unaffected by humidity.

Flue-gas and direct-air capture of CO2 by porous metal-organic materials.

Sequestration of CO2, either from gas mixtures or directly from air (direct air capture), is a technological goal important to large-scale industrial processes such as gas purification and the mitigation of carbon emissions. Previously, we investigated five porous materials, three porous metal–organic materials (MOMs), a benchmark inorganic material, Zeolite 13X and a chemisorbent, TEPA-SBA-15, for their ability to adsorb CO2 directly from air and from simulated flue-gas. In this contribution, a further 10 physisorbent materials that exhibit strong interactions with CO2 have been evaluated by temperature-programmed desorption for their potential utility in carbon capture applications: four hybrid ultramicroporous materials, SIFSIX-3-Cu, DICRO-3-Ni-i, SIFSIX-2-Cu-i and MOOFOUR-1-Ni; five microporous MOMs, DMOF-1, ZIF-8, MIL-101, UiO-66 and UiO-66-NH2; an ultramicroporous MOM, Ni-4-PyC. The performance of these MOMs was found to be negatively impacted by moisture. Overall, we demonstrate that the incorporation of strong electrostatics from inorganic moieties combined with ultramicropores offers improved CO2 capture performance from even moist gas mixtures but not enough to compete with chemisorbents. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Coordination polymers and metal–organic frameworks: materials by design’.

Highly Selective Separation of C2H2 from CO2 by a New Dichromate-Based Hybrid Ultramicroporous Material

A new hybrid ultramicroporous material, [Ni(1,4-di(pyridine-2-yl)benzene)2(Cr2O7)]n (DICRO-4-Ni-i), has been prepared and structurally characterized. Pure gas sorption isotherms and molecular modeling of sorbate-sorbent interactions imply strong selectivity for C2H2 over CO2 (SAC). Dynamic gas breakthrough coupled with temperature-programmed desorption experiments were conducted on DICRO-4-Ni-i and two other porous materials reported to exhibit high SAC, TIFSIX-2-Cu-i and MIL-100(Fe), using a C2H2/CO2/He (10:5:85) gas mixture. Whereas CO2/C2H2 coadsorption by MIL-100(Fe) mitigated the purity of trapped C2H2, negligible coadsorption and high SAC were observed for DICRO-4-Ni-i and TIFSIX-2-Cu-i.

Impact of partial interpenetration in a hybrid ultramicroporous material on C2H2/C2H4 separation performance

Phases of a 2-fold pcu hybrid ultramicroporous material (HUM), SIFSIX-14-Cu-i, exhibiting 99%, 93%, 89%, and 70% partial interpenetration have been obtained. 1 : 99 C2H2/C2H4 gas separation studies reveal that as the proportion of interpenetrated component decreases, so does the separation performance.

Efficient CO2 Removal for Ultra-Pure CO Production by Two Hybrid Ultramicroporous Materials

Removal of CO2 from CO gas mixtures is a necessary but challenging step during production of ultra-pure CO as processed from either steam reforming of hydrocarbons or CO2 reduction. Herein, two hybrid ultramicroporous materials (HUMs), SIFSIX-3-Ni and TIFSIX-2-Cu-i, which are known to exhibit strong affinity for CO2 , were examined with respect to their performance for this separation. The single-gas CO sorption isotherms of these HUMs were measured for the first time and are indicative of weak affinity for CO and benchmark CO2 /CO selectivity (>4000 for SIFSIX-3-Ni). This prompted us to conduct dynamic breakthrough experiments and compare performance with other porous materials. Ultra-pure CO (99.99 %) was thereby obtained from CO gas mixtures containing both trace (1 %) and bulk (50 %) levels of CO2 in a one-step physisorption-based separation process.