Supported ionic liquids as highly efficient and low-cost material for CO2/CH4 separation process

Abstract

Physical immobilization of ionic liquids (ILs) in solid materials appears as an interesting strategy for the development of new sorbents for CO 2 separation from natural gas. In this work the effect of physical immobilization of two ionic liquids with different anions (bmim[Cl] and bmim[OAc]) on two mesoporous supports (commercial silica SBA-15 and silica extracted from rice husk) was evaluated for CO 2 separation from natural gas by experimental determination of CO 2 sorption, CO 2 /CH 4 selectivity and sorption kinetics. Results showed that the pure supports present the greatest CO 2 sorption capacity when compared to immobilized ILs. However, CO 2 removal efficiency improves considerably in the CO 2 /CH 4 mixture when ILs are immobilized in these supports. The best selectivity results were obtained for supports immobilized with the IL bmim[Cl] and values increased for SIL-Cl by 37% and SBA-Cl 51% when compared with their respective supports. The contribution of SIL-Cl (3.03 ± 0.12) to separation performance (CO 2 /CH 4 ) is similar to SBA-Cl (3.29 ± 0.39). ILs supported also presented fast sorption kinetics when compared to pure ILs thus being an interesting alternative in the search for highly efficient and low-cost separation processes.

Insights into Ionic Liquids: From Z-Bonds to Quasi-Liquids

“…Recently, much research on ILs has focused on cutting-edge research fields such as separations, 28 , 29 catalysis, 30 , 31 electrochemistry, 32 , 33 biomolecular analysis, 34 − 36 and drug synthesis. 37 For example, Zhang’s group 38 − 45 focused on the multiscale nature and function of ILs and applied ILs to industrial processes such as CO 2 capture and utilization, 16 , 30 , 46 lignin dissolution and transformation, 45 , 47 , 48 new energy storage, 49 − 51 and thermal management of nanoelectron devices.…”

Topological engineering of two-dimensional ionic liquid islands for high structural stability and CO2 adsorption selectivity

“…Due to the green and environmentally-friendly nature, 1,2 ionic liquids (ILs) have been used in many cutting-edge elds, including green chemistry, [3][4][5] electrochemistry, 6,7 energy storage, 8,9 gas separation, 10,11 and catalysis. 12,13 In the real application environment, solid-surface supported IL (SSIL) lms always exist and show several advantages compared with the bulk ones, 14,15 for example, higher stability, less usage of ILs, faster adsorption kinetics, etc. Consequently, SSIL lms have attracted broad attention in the academy and industrial community.…”

Improved ionic-liquid-functionalized macroporous supports able to purify nucleic acids in one step

“…The ATR-FTIR spectra of the MP, MP-SilPrCl, and MP-SilPrMImCl supports are very similar, showing that the chemical integrity of the matrix is maintained. Moreover, an additional band at 1571 cm −1 is observed in the MP-SilPrMImCl spectrum, being attributed to the stretching vibrations of the imidazole ring skeleton [ 39 , 40 ], which therefore reinforces the success of the immobilization process.…”