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Moon HJ, Carrillo JMY, Song M, Rim G, Heller WT, Leisen J, Proaño L, Short GN, Banerjee S, Sumpter BG, Jones CW. Underlying Roles of Polyol Additives in Promoting CO 2 Capture in PEI/Silica Adsorbents. CHEMSUSCHEM 2024:e202400967. [PMID: 38830830 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202400967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2024] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
Solid-supported amines having low molecular weight branched poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) physically impregnated into porous solid supports are promising adsorbents for CO2 capture. Co-impregnating short-chain poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) together with PEI alters the performance of the adsorbent, delivering improved amine efficiency (AE, mol CO2 sorbed/mol N) and faster CO2 uptake rates. To uncover the physical basis for this improved gas capture performance, we probe the distribution and mobility of the polymers in the pores via small angle neutron scattering (SANS), solid-state NMR, and molecular dynamic (MD) simulation studies. SANS and MD simulations reveal that PEG displaces wall-bound PEI, making amines more accessible for CO2 sorption. Solid-state NMR and MD simulation suggest intercalation of PEG into PEI domains, separating PEI domains and reducing amine-amine interactions, providing potential PEG-rich and amine-poor interfacial domains that bind CO2 weakly via physisorption while providing facile pathways for CO2 diffusion. Contrary to a prior literature hypothesis, no evidence is obtained for PEG facilitating PEI mobility in solid supports. Instead, the data suggest that PEG chains coordinate to PEI, forming larger bodies with reduced mobility compared to PEI alone. We also demonstrate promising CO2 uptake and desorption kinetics at varied temperatures, facilitated by favorable amine distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun June Moon
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Jan-Michael Y Carrillo
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37380, USA
| | - MinGyu Song
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Guanhe Rim
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - William T Heller
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Johannes Leisen
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Laura Proaño
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Gabriel N Short
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Sayan Banerjee
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Bobby G Sumpter
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37380, USA
| | - Christopher W Jones
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
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Martinez AA, Arneodo Larochette PP, Gennari FC, Gasnier A. The Structure-Function Relationship of Branched Polyethylenimine Impregnated over Mesoporous Carbon Aerogels: An In-Depth Thermogravimetric Insight. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2023; 39:17133-17145. [PMID: 37975861 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
We present a comprehensive thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of polyethylenimine (PEI)-impregnated resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) aerogels. While numerous studies focus on PEI-impregnated SBA, RF materials have been less examined, despite their interest and specificities. As most articles on PEI-impregnated porous materials follow typical experimental methods defined for SBA, particularities of RF-PEI materials could remain unheeded. The design of nonisothermal TGA protocols, completed with nitrogen isotherms, based on the systematic filling of the matrix delivers a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the structure and function. This study demonstrates (i) the competition between the matrix and PEI for CO2-physisorption (φ) and CO2-chemisorption (χ), (ii) the hysteresis ([Formula: see text]) of CO2 capture at low temperature attributed to the kinetic (K) hindrance of CO2 diffusion (D) through PEI film/plugs limiting the chemisorption, and (iii) the thermodynamic (θ) equilibrium limiting the capture at high temperature. At variance with SBA-PEI materials, the first layers of PEI in RF are readily available for CO2 capture given that this matrix does not covalently bind PEI as SBA. A facile method allows the discrimination between physi- and chemisorption, exhibiting how the former decreases with PEI coverage. The CO2 capture hysteresis, while seldom introduced or discussed, underlines that the commonly accepted operating temperature of the "maximum capture" is based on an incomplete experiment. Through isotherm adsorption analysis, we correlate the evolution of this maximum to the morphological distribution of PEI. This contribution highlights the specificities of RF-PEI and the advantages of our TGA protocol in understanding the structure/function relationship of this kind of material by avoiding the typical direct applications of SBA-specific protocols. The method is straightforward, does not need large-scale facilities, and is applicable to other materials. Its easiness and rapidness are suited to high-volume studies, befitting for the comprehensive evaluation of interacting factors such as the matrix's nature, pore size, and PEI weight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandra A Martinez
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Centro Atómico Bariloche (CNEA), S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
- Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología, S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
| | - Pierre P Arneodo Larochette
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Centro Atómico Bariloche (CNEA), S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
- Instituto Balseiro, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
| | - Fabiana C Gennari
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Centro Atómico Bariloche (CNEA), S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
- Instituto Balseiro, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
| | - Aurelien Gasnier
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Centro Atómico Bariloche (CNEA), S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
- Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología, S. C. de Bariloche, Río Negro R8402AGP, Argentina
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Moon HJ, Carrillo JMY, Jones CW. Distribution and Mobility of Amines Confined in Porous Silica Supports Assessed via Neutron Scattering, NMR, and MD Simulations: Impacts on CO 2 Sorption Kinetics and Capacities. Acc Chem Res 2023; 56:2620-2630. [PMID: 37722889 PMCID: PMC10552550 DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.3c00363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
ConspectusSolid-supported amines are a promising class of CO2 sorbents capable of selectively capturing CO2 from diverse sources. The chemical interactions between the amine groups and CO2 give rise to the formation of strong CO2 adducts, such as alkylammonium carbamates, carbamic acids, and bicarbonates, which enable CO2 capture even at low driving force, such as with ultradilute CO2 streams. Among various solid-supported amine sorbents, oligomeric amines infused into oxide solid supports (noncovalently supported) are widely studied due to their ease of synthesis and low cost. This method allows for the construction of amine-rich sorbents while minimizing problems, such as leaching or evaporation, that occur with supported molecular amines.Researchers have pursued improved sorbents by tuning the physical and chemical properties of solid supports and amine phases. In terms of CO2 uptake, the amine efficiency, or the moles of sorbed CO2 per mole of amine sites, and uptake rate (CO2 capture per unit time) are the most critical factors determining the effectiveness of the material. While structure-property relationships have been developed for different porous oxide supports, the interaction(s) of the amine phase with the solid support, the structure and distribution of the organic phase within the pores, and the mobility of the amine phase within the pores are not well understood. These factors are important, because the kinetics of CO2 sorption, particularly when using the prototypical amine oligomer branched poly(ethylenimine) (PEI), follow an unconventional trend, with rapid initial uptake followed by a very slow, asymptotic approach to equilibrium. This suggests that the uptake of CO2 within such solid-supported amines is mass transfer-limited. Therefore, improving sorption performance can be facilitated by better understanding the amine structure and distribution within the pores.In this context, model solid-supported amine sorbents were constructed from a highly ordered, mesoporous silica SBA-15 support, and an array of techniques was used to probe the soft matter domains within these hybrid materials. The choice of SBA-15 as the model support was based on its ordered arrangement of mesopores with tunable physical and chemical properties, including pore size, particle lengths, and surface chemistries. Branched PEI─the most common amine phase used in solid CO2 sorbents─and its linear, low molecular weight analogue, tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), were deployed as the amine phases. Neutron scattering (NS), including small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS), alongside solid-state NMR (ssNMR) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, was used to elucidate the structure and mobility of the amine phases within the pores of the support. Together, these tools, which have previously not been applied to such materials, provided new information regarding how the amine phases filled the support pores as the loading increased and the mobility of those amine phases. Varying pore surface-amine interactions led to unique trends for amine distributions and mobility; for instance, hydrophilic walls (i.e., attractive to amines) resulted in hampered motions with more intimate coordination to the walls, while amines around hydrophobic walls or walls with grafted chains that interrupt amine-wall coordination showed recovered mobility, with amines being more liberated from the walls. By correlating the structural and dynamic properties with CO2 sorption properties, novel relationships were identified, shedding light on the performance of the amine sorbents, and providing valuable guidance for the design of more effective supported amine sorbents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun June Moon
- School
of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Jan Michael Y. Carrillo
- Center
of Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Christopher W. Jones
- School
of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
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Moon HJ, Carrillo JM, Leisen J, Sumpter BG, Osti NC, Tyagi M, Jones CW. Understanding the Impacts of Support-Polymer Interactions on the Dynamics of Poly(ethyleneimine) Confined in Mesoporous SBA-15. J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:11664-11675. [PMID: 35729771 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c03028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Supported amines are a promising class of CO2 sorbents offering large uptake capacities and fast uptake rates. Among supported amines, poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) physically impregnated in the mesopores of SBA-15 silica is widely used. Within these composite materials, the chain dynamics and morphologies of PEI strongly influence the CO2 capture performance, yet little is known about chain and macromolecule mobility in confined pores. Here, we probe the impact of the support-PEI interactions on the dynamics and structures of PEI at the support interface and the corresponding impact on CO2 uptake performance, which yields critical structure-property relationships. The pore walls of the support are grafted with organosilanes with different chemical end groups to differentiate interaction modes (spanning from strong attraction to repulsion) between the pore surface and PEI. Combinations of techniques, such as quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS), 1H T1-T2 relaxation correlation solid-state NMR, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, are used to comprehensively assess the physical properties of confined PEI. We hypothesized that PEI would have faster dynamics when subjected to less attractive or repulsive interactions. However, we discover that complex interfacial interactions resulted in complex structure-property relationships. Indeed, both the chain conformation of the surface-grafted chains and of the PEI around the surface influenced the chain mobility and CO2 uptake performance. By coupling knowledge of the dynamics and distributions of PEI with CO2 sorption performance and other characteristics, we determine that the macroscopic structures of the hybrid materials dictate the first rapid CO2 uptake, and the rate of CO2 sorption during the subsequent gradual uptake stage is determined by PEI chain motions that promote diffusive jumps of CO2 through PEI-packed domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun June Moon
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Jan-Michael Carrillo
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Johannes Leisen
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Bobby G Sumpter
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Naresh C Osti
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Madhusudan Tyagi
- NIST Center for Neutron Research, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, United States.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States
| | - Christopher W Jones
- School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.,School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
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Rother G, Tumuluri U, Huang K, Heller WT, Dai S, Carrillo JM, Sumpter BG. Interactions of an Imine Polymer with Nanoporous Silica and Carbon in Hybrid Adsorbents for Carbon Capture. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2021; 37:4622-4631. [PMID: 33819051 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Efficient carbon capture from stationary point sources can be achieved using hybrid adsorbents comprising nanoporous substrates coated with imine polymers. The physical properties of the CO2-adsorbing, nanodispersed polymers are altered by their interactions with the substrate, which in turn may impact their capture capacity. We study silica and carbon nanoporous substrates with different pore morphologies that were impregnated with polymer imine with the goal of characterizing the polymer dispersions in the pores. For silica and carbon samples, the mean densities of confined poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) were measured as functions of polymer loading and temperature using small-angle neutron scattering. Strong densification is found for imine polymers imbibed in mesoporous carbon. PEI in nanoporous silica does not experience this strong densification. At high loadings, plugs form, preferably at the pore throats, and can reduce accessible porosity. CO2 capture measurements show that PEI interactions with the substrate play an important role. PEI in carbon shows the highest capture capacity at low temperatures and the lowest CO2 adsorption at high temperatures, making it well-suited for temperature swing adsorption applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gernot Rother
- Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
| | - Uma Tumuluri
- Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
| | - Kuan Huang
- Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - William T Heller
- Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
| | - Sheng Dai
- Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - Jan-Michael Carrillo
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
| | - Bobby G Sumpter
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States
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Beu TA, Ailenei AE, Costinaş RI. Martini Force Field for Protonated Polyethyleneimine. J Comput Chem 2020; 41:349-361. [PMID: 31762047 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Revised: 10/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Polyethyleneimine (PEI), one of the most widely used nonviral gene carriers, was investigated in the presented work at coarse-grained (CG) level. The main focus was on elaborating a realistic CG force field (FF) aimed to reproduce dynamic structural features of protonated PEI chains and, furthermore, to enable massive simulations of DNA-PEI complex formation and condensation. We parametrized CG Martini FF models for PEI in polarizable and nonpolarizable water by applying Boltzmann inversion techniques to all-atom (AA) probability distributions for distances, angles, and dihedrals of entire monomers. The fine-tuning of the FFs was achieved by fitting simulated CG gyration radii and end-to-end distances to their AA counterparts. The developed Martini FF models are shown to be well suited for realistic large-scale simulations of size/protonation-dependent behavior of solvated PEI chains, either individually or as part of DNA-PEI systems. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Titus Adrian Beu
- Faculty of Physics, Department of Biomolecular Physics, University Babeş-Bolyai, Mihail Kogălniceanu Street 1, Cluj-Napoca, 400084, Romania
| | - Andrada-Elena Ailenei
- Faculty of Physics, Department of Biomolecular Physics, University Babeş-Bolyai, Mihail Kogălniceanu Street 1, Cluj-Napoca, 400084, Romania
| | - Răzvan-Ioan Costinaş
- Faculty of Physics, Department of Biomolecular Physics, University Babeş-Bolyai, Mihail Kogălniceanu Street 1, Cluj-Napoca, 400084, Romania
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