With renewable electricity becoming the most widely available, versatile energy form on Earth, the electricity-driven chemical reactors will play crucial role in the transition to green, environmentally-neutral manufacturing of fuels and chemicals.

WileyNigar, H.; García-Baños, B.; Penaranda-Foix, FL.; Catalá Civera, JM.; Mallada, R.; Santamaria, J. (2016). Amine-functionalized mesoporous silica: A material capable of CO2 adsorption and fast regeneration by microwave heating. AIChE Journal. 62 (2) The surface of ordered mesoporous (MCM-48) silica has been subjected to covalent grafting with silane molecules containing one to three amino groups. The dielectric properties of the materials were studied in detail, and the functionalized materials were used for CO 2 adsorption at room temperature, followed by regeneration under either conventional heating or microwave irradiation. It has been found that, as the intensity of functionalization with amino groups increases (from mono to tri-amino silanes) both the CO 2 load and the dielectric response at microwave frequencies increase. In particular, functionalization with a tri-amino silane derivative gave the highest CO 2 adsorption and the fastest microwave heating, resulting in a 4-fold acceleration of adsorbent regeneration. The grafted material was fully stable for at least 20 adsorption-regeneration cycles, making it an ideal candidate for microwaveswing adsorption (MWSA) processes.

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