Amine-infused hydrogels
provide a facile platform for developing
solid sorbents with improved CO2 capture performance relative
to that of their liquid counterparts. In this study, we develop hydrogel
materials that can be easily manufactured at a large scale and have
high flow gas permeability characteristics, fast uptake kinetics,
and minimal performance degradation after recycling, properties which
are particularly important for applications in direct air capture
(DAC). To overcome water loss issues associated with hydrogel materials
for DAC, we have introduced high-boiling-point/nonaqueous solvent
systems, which significantly lowered the solvent loss, leading to
dramatically improved recyclability. Among the materials developed,
cross-linked poly(N-2-hydroxyethylacrylamide) (PHEAA)
infused with diethanolamine (DEA) exhibited 7.82 and 2.90 wt % CO2 uptake with pure CO2 and DAC, respectively. Interestingly,
by changing the hydrogel platform between either a cross-linked superabsorbent
[i.e., poly(acrylamide/sodium acrylate)], PHEAA, or poly(acrylamide)
(PolyAA) and impregnating with different amines/solvents, the uptake
kinetics could be controlled and significantly improved. In fact,
the PolyAA system impregnated with DEA in ethylene glycol showed 90%
of the total capacity (6.37%) in 350 s (vs 4300 s in the case of the
PHEAA/DEA system) as well as an enhanced amine efficiency (0.76 vs
0.28 mol CO2 per amine). Thus, this study demonstrates
the use of different nonaqueous solvents on readily synthesized hydrogel
platforms to improve the DAC uptake efficiency and kinetics. The fast
kinetics enable shorter adsorption/desorption cycles, which will be
advantageous in improving the CO2 uptake selectivity and
reducing the sorption of water in larger-scale implementations of
this approach, in both urban and industrial applications.