Carboxylate
ionic liquid (IL) and polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG200)
mixtures are suitable for the absorption of acidic SO2 because
of their unique properties. In the present work, tetraethylammonium
furoate ([N2222][FA]) and choline furoate ([Ch][FA]) were
blended with PEG200 to form 40 wt % ILs/PEG200 mixtures as SO2 absorbents. The solubilities of SO2 in these two
ILs/PEG200 mixtures were measured at T = (303.15,
313.15, 323.15, and 333.15) K and pressure up to 1.2 bar. [N2222][FA]/PEG200 demonstrated the high SO2 absorption capacity
of 7.224 mol per kg absorbent at 303.15 K and 1.0 bar. The chemisorption
mechanism of SO2 by mixture was studied by Fourier transform
infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, and the influence
of cations on the SO2 absorption capacity was analyzed.
Furthermore, the reaction equilibrium thermodynamic model was used
to correlate the experimental data, and Henry’s law constant
(H), reaction equilibrium constant (K
0), and thermodynamic properties (Δr
G
m
0, Δr
H
m
0, and Δr
S
m
0) were derived.
The absorption enthalpies of the two binary mixtures are −46.39
and −23.07 kJ·mol–1 for the two mixtures,
respectively. Considering the low cost, biodegradability of the materials,
high capacity, and low absorption enthalpy, the [N2222][FA]/PEG200
mixture was regarded to be an attractive and promising alternative
to pure ILs and ordinary solvent as a desulfurizer.