Investigation of CO2 Capture on Aminopolymer Impregnated MCM-36

The bulk of the research into solid adsorbents has currently been focused on increasing the amine loading of the sorbents used in order to directly increase CO₂ capture capacity and selectivity, without investigating the changes that occur to the pore environment upon impregnation. However, increasing the amine loading in a porous solid can have drastic effects on the diffusion of CO₂, making a material that seems promising in the lab infeasible in practice. We have recently reported on the effects of impregnation on the kinetics and diffusion of CO₂ in MCM-36. These results suggest that maximum capacity is in a region where the diffusion limitations incurred through impregnation are not yet severe enough to decrease capture capacity. Our results suggest that a more detailed study of the changes to diffusion with amine loading may allow for the detection of more optimum conditions for maximum capture performance at lower amine loadings.