Enhanced carbon dioxide adsorption by amine-modified KCC-1

Abstract

The increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission due to anthropogenic activities has become a threat to our environment. Hence there is an urgent need to control its emission via carbon capture and storage (CCS) strategy. However, the readily available method, which is liquid amine absorption, possesses some drawbacks including being energy intensive and may cause material corrosion. Dry CO2 adsorption using amine-functionalized silica has been studied to provide a simple and cost-effective alternative for CO2 capture. Recently emerged dendritic fibrous silica possesses excellent morphology and characteristics to be developed as an effective CO2 adsorbent. Herein, the CO2 adsorption performance using amine-modified fibrous silica nanoparticle, KCC-1 was studied. As-synthesized KCC-1 was modified with tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) via impregnation method. Its characteristics were studied before it was subjected to the CO2 adsorption experiment. The Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR) results indicates that TEPA was successfully impregnated with peaks at 3383 cm−1, 2935 cm−1, 2837 cm−1, 1558 cm−1, 1479 cm−1 and 1309 cm−1, while X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that KCC-1 structure was preserved. KCC-1/TEPA recorded higher adsorption capacity of CO2 compared to the unmodified KCC-1, with maximum adsorption capacity of 189.86 mg/g. Equilibrium isotherm model fitting of the CO2 adsorption was also carried out, and the adsorption data of KCC-1/TEPA fitted well to Toth isotherm. Overall, it has been demonstrated that KCC-1/TEPA has excellent potential to be used for CO2 adsorption, and more studies need to be conducted for its development.