Oligoamine ionic liquids supported on mesoporous microspheres for CO2 separation with good sorption kinetics and low cost

Polyurethanes Modified by Ionic Liquids and Their Applications

Polyurethane (PU) refers to the polymer containing carbamate groups in its molecular structure, generally obtained by the reaction of isocyanate and alcohol. Because of its flexible formulation, diverse product forms, and excellent performance, it has been widely used in mechanical engineering, electronic equipment, biomedical applications, etc. Through physical or chemical methods, ionic groups are introduced into PU, which gives PU electrical conductivity, flame-retardant, and antistatic properties, thus expanding the application fields of PU, especially in flexible devices such as sensors, actuators, and functional membranes for batteries and gas absorption. In this review, we firstly introduced the characteristics of PU in chemical and microphase structures and their related physical and chemical performance. To improve the performance of PU, ionic liquids (ILs) were applied in the processing or synthesis of PU, resulting in a new type of PU called ionic PU. In the following part of this review, we mainly summarized the fabrication methods of IL-modified PUs via physical blending and the chemical copolymerization method. Then, we summarized the research progress of the applications for IL-modified PUs in different fields, including sensors, actuators, transistors, antistatic films, etc. Finally, we discussed the future development trends and challenges faced by IL-modified PUs.

One-Step Synthesis of Solid-Liquid Composite Microsphere for CO2 Capture

The design and development of efficient adsorbents for CO₂ capture is of paramount importance. Herein, we report a novel Pickering emulsion templating strategy to prepare a hierarchically structured, micrometer-sized solid-liquid composite microsphere (SLCM) for CO₂ capture. This strategy enables us to introduce liquid amine into porous silica nanospheres which are encapsulated by the hydrophobic shell of micrometer-sized sphere through a one-step synthesis. The interior architectures, microsphere sizes, and anime loading can be facilely tuned through varying the synthesis conditions. The developed SLCM exhibits excellent CO₂ adsorption capacity, fast adsorption kinetics, long-term recyclability, and reduced loss of amine in industrially preferred fixed-bed reactors. Interestingly, it was found that the adsorption behavior was dependent on the interior structure of SLCM. This study opens a new way to design efficient solid-liquid composite materials.