A thermodynamic
platform in combination with experimental surface
tension data is used to predict the surface phase speciation of CO2-loaded aqueous solutions of 30 wt % (%) monoethanolamine
(MEA) at 20, 40, and 60 °C from their corresponding bulk phase
speciation. The osmotic coefficient dependency of the surface tension
of an electrolyte solution has been employed to estimate the surface
tension. In order to calculate the osmotic coefficients, the Pitzer
equation for the excess Gibbs energy was applied. According to the
results of this study, molecular MEA and to some extent protonated
MEA and the MEA–carbamate have surface propensity and will
accumulate at the surface phase. The carbonate ion shows nearly even
distribution between bulk and surface phases, and bicarbonate displays
a tendency to remain in the bulk phase that increases with CO2 loading. The differences in the behaviors of protonated MEA,
MEA–carbamate, carbonate, and bicarbonate are due to differences
among their sizes and polarizabilities. Using first-principles calculations,
the static isotropic dipole polarizabilities for bicarbonate, carbonate,
MEA carbamate, and protonated MEA were calculated. The bulk and surface
phases’ ionic strengths reasonably represent this behavior
of ionic species at the surface phase.