Polyethyleneimine-functionalized graphene oxide aerogels for direct air captureShow others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Chemical Engineering Journal, ISSN 1385-8947, E-ISSN 1873-3212, Vol. 506, article id 159963Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Amine-functionalized sorbents are promising materials for direct air capture (DAC). Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) aerogels have higher electrical and heat conductivities than commonly studied aminated silica. These properties could jointly enhance the productivity of an associated CO2 separation process. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) rGO aerogels were fabricated, modified with polyethyleneimine (PEI) at various mass ratios, and applied successfully as a CO2 adsorbent at different temperatures and pressures. The structure, morphology, and chemical properties of the aminated composite aerogels based on PEI-rGO were comparably characterized using elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The CO2 uptake performance of the PEI-rGO aerogels was assessed by analysis of the adsorption isotherms at 20 and 50 °C. The optimized PEI-rGO-71 (referring to 71 wt% PEI to the sample) exhibited the highest CO2 uptake across the tested CO2 pressure range (0.03–101 kPa), reaching 0.61 mmol CO2/g at the partial pressure of CO2 in ambient air (0.04 kPa). It showed a superior CO2 capture capacity compared to previously reported amine-modified graphene-based sorbents at ambient CO2 concentration
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier B.V. , 2025. Vol. 506, article id 159963
Keywords [en]
Adsorption isotherms; Aerogels; Reduced Graphene Oxide; Thermogravimetric analysis; Air captures; CO 2 uptake; CO2 sorption; Functionalized; Functionalized graphene; Graphene oxide aerogels; Poly(ethyleneimine); Polyethyleneimine; Property; Reduced graphene oxides; Direct air capture
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-78021DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2025.159963Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85216272267OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-78021DiVA, id: diva2:2000859
Note
This work was supported by the MistraTerraClean programme (Project No. 2015/31) of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Fig. 1. Scanning electron microscopy images of (A) the parent aerogel (rGO-REF) with an inset showing the close view of the sample at a 1L scale, and (B) the aminated PEI-rGO-71 sorbent studied for DAC.Fig. 2. (A) CO2 adsorption isotherms of PEI-rGO aerogels and rGO-REF at 20 ◦C. (B) CO2 adsorption isotherms with PEI-rGO-71 measured at 50 ◦C (red line) and by repeated measurements at 20 ◦C (green lines). For the cycles, the same sample was used for degassing and CO2 adsorption tests.J. Ai et al. Chemical Engineering Journal 506 (2025) 1599633Environmental Research, and the Swedish Research Council (2021- 04472, NH). J.Y. is grateful for financial support from European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant PARIS-101043485 and Vinnova (Project No. 2023-02563).
2025-09-252025-09-252025-09-25Bibliographically approved