Volume 1: Energy Innovations: Accelerated Deployment, New Concepts, and Emerging Technologies

Polyethyleneimine entwine thermally-treated Zn/Co zeolitic imidazolate frameworks to enhance CO2 adsorption Jun Cheng, Niu Liu, Leiqing Hu

Abstract

—In order to solve the problems of deficient CO2 adsorption sites on Zn/Co zeolitic imidazolate frameworks(ZIFs), Zn/Co ZIFs were thermally treated to promote physical adsorption sites on Zn-N and Co-N bonds and then impregnated with polyethyleneimine (PEI) to promote -NH- and -NH2- chemical adsorption sites. The CO2 adsorption capacity detected on Micromeritics ASAP 2020C increased by 53% to 1.07mmol/g at 298K and 1bar, when Zn/Co ZIF was treated at optimal temperature of 450 ºC to obtain the maximum Me-N2 unsaturated adsorption sites. This was because of a partial cleavage of coordination bonds between Zn-N, Co-N, C=N and C-N along with dissociation of rationally free methyl groups in the framework ligands, which was supported on density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The Zn/Co ZIF treated at 450 ºC and then impregnated with 40wt% PEI exhibited the highest CO2 adsorption capacity of 1.82 mmol/g under the condition of at 298K and 1bar, which was 2.6 times higher than that of raw Zn/Co ZIF. In addition, this adsorbent is proved to be regenerable and stable during 9 cycle CO2 adsorptiondesorption tests, therefore, PEI- thermally treated Zn/Co ZIF exhibits a very promising application in CO2 capture from flue gas and natural gas.

Keywords CO2 capture, adsorption, ZIF, PEI