Amino acid ionic liquids (AAILs) are regarded as green
alternatives
to existing CO2-sorptive materials because amino acids
are readily available from renewable sources in large quantities.
For widespread applications of AAILs, including direct air capture,
the relationship between the stability of AAILs, especially toward
O2, and the CO2 separation performance is of
particular importance. In the present study, the accelerated oxidative
degradation of tetra-n-butylphosphonium l-prolinate ([P4444][Pro]), a model AAIL that has been
widely investigated as a CO2-chemsorptive IL, is performed
using a flow-type reactor system. Upon heating at 120–150 °C
and O2 gas bubbling to [P4444][Pro], both the
cationic and anionic parts undergo oxidative degradation. The kinetic
evaluation of the oxidative degradation of [P4444][Pro]
is performed by tracing the decrease in the [Pro]− concentration. Supported IL membranes composed of degraded [P4444][Pro] are fabricated, and the membranes retain CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 selectivity
values in spite of the partial degradation of [P4444][Pro].