Carbon dioxide adsorption by zincfunctionalized ionic liquid impregnated into bio-templated mesoporous silica beads, Chemical Engineering Journal (2015), doi: http://dx.
AbstractNovel high capacity hybrid sorbents for CO 2 capture have been developed based on zincfunctionalized ionic liquid (IL) impregnated into mesoporous silica beads derived from calcium alginate template beads. Pore modification and development of a surface-confined layer of IL synergistically enhanced the uptake capacity (up to 8.7 wt%) and kinetics of these materials.Spectroscopic and thermophysical signatures of the IL impregnated materials confirm the existence of a highly confined IL layer at low IL:SiO 2 ratio, and multilayer-mimicking bulk phase at higher IL loading. Our results clearly demonstrate that developing a thin layer of zinc-functionalized IL onto porous silica beads effectively enhances the uptake kinetics by exposing interaction sites across a large surface area, and facilitating diffusion through the pore network of the support.