Amine-Functionalized Amyloid Aerogels for CO2 Capture

Climate change caused by excessive CO2 emissions constitutes an increasingly dire threat to human life. Reducing CO2 emissions alone may not be sufficient to address this issue, so that the development of emerging adsorbents for the direct capture of CO2 from the air becomes essential. Here, we apply amyloid fibrils derived from different food proteins as the solid adsorbent support and develop aminosilane-modified amyloid fibril-templated aerogels for CO2 capture applications. The results indicate that the CO2 sorption properties of the aerogels depend on the mixing ratio of aminosilane featuring different amine groups and the type of amyloid fibril used. Notably, amine-functionalized beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) fibril-templated aerogels show the highest CO2 adsorption capacity of 51.52 mg (1.17 mmol) CO2/g at 1 bar CO2 and 25.5 mg (0.58 mmol) CO2/g at 400 ppm; similarly, the CO2 adsorption capacity of chitosan-BLG fibril hybrid aerogels is superior to that of pure chitosan. This study provides a proof-of-concept design for an amyloid fibril-templated hybrid material facilitating applications of protein-based adsorbents for CO2 capture, including direct air capture.

Automated summary

This study develops a method using amyloid fibrils derived from food proteins as solid adsorbents for direct capture of CO2 from the air. The results show that the CO2 sorption properties of the adsorbents depend on the mixing ratio of aminosilane and the type of amyloid fibril. Beta-lactoglobulin fibril-templated aerogels exhibit the highest CO2 adsorption capacity.