Development of efficient amine-modified mesoporous silica SBA-15 for CO2 capture

Abstract A novel CO 2 sorbent was prepared by impregnating mesoporous silica, SBA-15, with acrylonitrile (AN)-modified tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) in order to increase CO 2 adsorption capacity and improve cycling stability. The mesoporous silica with pre- and post-surface modification was investigated by X-ray diffraction characterization (XRD), N 2 adsorption–desorption test (N 2 -BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The adsorption/desorption performance of S-TN (TN: AN modified TEPA) and S-TEPA was studied by dynamic adsorption. Test results showed that the solid base-impregnated SBA-15 demonstrated high CO 2 adsorption capacity (180.1 mg g −1 -adsorbent for 70% amine loading level). Compared to S-TEPA (24.1% decrease of initial capacity), S-TN with 50% amine loading exhibited improved cycling stability, 99.9% activity reserved (from initial 153.0 mg g −1 to 151.3 mg g −1 ) after 12 cycles of adsorption/desorption at 100 °C. A mechanism of molecular structure of the loaded amine was attributed to the improved performance.