Epoxide-Functionalized, Poly(ethylenimine)-Confined Silica/Polymer Module Affording Sustainable CO2 Capture in Rapid Thermal Swing Adsorption

Creating a module that achieves sustainable CO2 capture while being compatible with the existing industry is paramount in overcoming the current CO2-driven environmental issues. This paper presents the fabrication of hollow fiber sorbents (HFSs) and their respective modules to capture CO2 by the rapid thermal swing adsorption process (RTSA). Poly(amide-imide) (PAI)/microspheric SiO2 composites were fabricated with a so-called “sieve-in-a-cage” microarchitecture which promotes CO2 diffusion. More importantly, a selected amount of 1,2-epoxybutane (EB)-functionalized poly(ethylenimine) (PEI), denoted as 0.37EB-PEI, was incorporated into our PAI/SiO2 composites forming PAI/SiO2/0.37EB-PEI HFSs which enhanced the thermal stability with a moderate CO2 sorption uptake of 0.88 mmol CO2 g–1. The resulting HFSs were assembled into a module using either stainless steel (SS) or poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE), and their respective CO2-capturing performances in the RTSA process were compared. The two modules had a co...