Addressing global CO2 emissions is one of the overarching challenges of the century. Industrial emissions, characterized by approximately 10% CO2 concentration and energy-intensive processes, significantly contribute to greenhouse gases and require urgent mitigation strategies. Despite promising advancements in CO2 capture technologies, considerable progress is still needed to achieve widespread commercial adoption. Due to their negligible volatility and customizable chemical properties, deep eutectic solvents (DES) and ionic liquids (ILs) have gained attention as promising materials for CO2 capture. This study presents the application of mixtures combining alkaline DES and ILs to achieve improved CO2 chemisorption rates in dilute gas mixtures containing N2. The kinetics of CO2 chemisorption were analyzed across several semi-batch experiments using pseudo-first-order models. All reaction profiles followed the pseudo-first-order rate equation with R2 > 0.9. Notably, the results reveal that CO2 chemisorption rates in mixtures of IL and alkaline DES are up to six times faster than those observed in alkaline DES alone. Arrhenius modeling, NMR, and in situ-IR spectroscopy are also employed to investigate the reaction intermediate, responsible for the enhancement of the carbon capture rates. Furthermore, a plausible reaction mechanism is proposed. This study presents a novel and practical strategy for designing DES-IL mixtures optimized for CO2 separation, offering promising advancements in tackling industrial emissions.
