Correlating the Macrostructural Variations of an Ion Gel with Its Carbon Dioxide Sorption Capacity

Tung Nguyen; Mona Bavarian; Siamak Nejati

doi:10.3390/membranes12111087

Correlating the Macrostructural Variations of an Ion Gel with Its Carbon Dioxide Sorption Capacity

Membranes (Basel). 2022 Nov 1;12(11):1087. doi: 10.3390/membranes12111087.

Authors

Tung Nguyen¹, Mona Bavarian¹, Siamak Nejati¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.

Abstract

We report on a direct correlation between the macroscale structural variations and the gas sorption capacities of an ion gel. Here, we chose 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl sulfonyl)imide ([Emim][TF₂N]) and poly(vinylidene fluoride)-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) as the ionic liquid and host polymer, respectively. The CO₂ sorption in the thin films of the IL-polymer was measured using the gravimetric method. The results of our experiment showed that the trend in CO₂ uptake of these mixtures was nonlinearly correlated with the content of IL. Here, we highlight that the variations in the molecular structure of the polymers were the main reason behind the observed trend. The presented data suggested the possibility of using the composition of mixtures containing IL and polymers to realize a synergistic gain for gas sorption in these mixtures.

Keywords: carbon dioxide; gas sorption; ionic liquids; polymer; synergy.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.