Designing adsorbents for CO2 capture from flue gas-hyperbranched aminosilicas capable,of capturing CO2 reversibly

Carbon dioxide adsorption from a simulated flue gas stream was successfully performed with a hyperbranched aminosilica (HAS) material. The HAS was synthesized by a one-step reaction, spontaneous aziridine ring-opening polymerization off of surface silanols, to form a 32 wt % organic/inorganic hybrid material. The adsorption measurements were performed in a fixed-bed flow reactor using humidified CO(2). The advantage of this adsorbent over previously reported adsorbents is the stability of the organic groups covalently bound to the silica support compared to those made by physisorbed methods. Furthermore, a large CO(2) capacity (similar to 3 mmol CO(2)/g adsorbent) associated with the high loading of amines was observed.