Synergistic enhancement of CO2 uptake in highly ordered mesoporous silica-supported zinc-functionalized ionic liquid sorbents

Abstract We developed porous silica supported zinc-functionalized IL sorbents prepared by confining a thin layer of IL onto the surface of SBA-15. This novel hybrid sorbent system exhibited unprecedented high uptake capacity of up to 4.7 mmol CO 2  g −1 sorbent, a dramatic enhancement compared to bulk IL (600%) and bare support (250%). Most remarkably, the rate of uptake was improved by up to 10 times, synergistically arising from the strong affinity of the IL to CO 2 , and the large surface area and high porosity of the support.