Effect of amine double-functionalization on CO2 adsorption behaviors of silica gel-supported adsorbents

Amine double-functionalized adsorbents were fabricated using silica gel as supports and their capabilities for CO2 capture were examined. Aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (1N-APS), and N-1-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)diethylenetriamine (3N-APS) were used as grafted amine compounds, and tetraethylenepentamine and polyethyleneimine were used as impregnated species. The influence of double-functionalization method on the CO2 adsorption performance and textural properties of adsorbents was investigated. The adsorption capacity, the amine efficiency, and the thermal stability of double-functionalized sorbents depend strongly upon molecular variables associated with two different functional states (i.e., chemically grafted and physically impregnated amines). The temperature dependence of adsorption isotherms reveals that the CO2 adsorption behavior in the double-functionalized adsorbents follow the diffusion limitation model proposed by Xu et al. (Energy Fuels 16:1463-1469, 2002) where the CO2 adsorption is helped by the diffusion of impregnated amines. It is also found that the adsorption isotherm in the double-functionalized sorbent system with a proper choice for grafted and impregnated amines is nearly independent of temperature, which may offer a novel means to fabricate practically useful sorbents that can be used in a wide range of temperature without loss of CO2 adsorption capacity.