Engineered Nanocomposites for Capturing and Converting Carbon Dioxide into Useful Chemicals
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Engineered Nanocomposites for Capturing and Converting Carbon Dioxide into Useful Chemicals Michael Ashley1, 2 †, Punnamchandar Ramidi3, †, Timothy Bontrager1, Charles Magiera2, Anindya Ghosh3,*, Alexandru S. Biris4, Ilker S. Bayer5 and Abhijit Biswas1,* 1 Center for Nano Science and Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR 72204, USA. 4 Nanotechnology Center, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR 72204, USA. 5 Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies, Smart Materials Platform, Italian Institute of Technology, Lecce 73010, Italy. †
Equal Contributions *Corresponding authors: [email protected] (Abhijit Biswas); [email protected] (Anindya Ghosh)
ABSTRACT We describe a simple drop-cast processing method to synthesize multicomponent polymer-based nanocomposites for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and conversion into stable carbonates. These multicomponent nanocomposites are made of combination of different metal oxide nanoparticles and catalysts in a porous polymer matrix. The formulation includes the combination of titanium dioxide and magnesium oxide, ruthenium oxide, and iron oxide where each metal oxide exhibits its own catalytic function of trapping carbon dioxide. Such a material system provides numerous localized catalytically active hot reaction spots generated by the dispersed multifunctional oxide nanoparticles that react with CO2 when exposed to the gas stream and instantaneously convert the captured carbon into carbonates. Finally, we discuss our ongoing work on the possibility of converting captured-carbon-formed-carbonate into useful products/commodities such as methane, methanol and formic acid. The integration of polymer materials with catalytically active nanomaterials shows a promising strategy for CO2 capture and conversion into useful products towards achieving a sustainable energy future. INTRODUCTION The Green House Effect has established that placing enormous amounts of carbon products into atmosphere has a warming effect on the earth resulting in catastrophic weather and unhealthy regional air quality. Hence, the development of economically viable and/or energyefficient pathways/approaches for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture/adsorption is critically important to mitigate climate change and preserve the eco system. The combustion of carbon-containing fuels i.e. hydrocarbons (natural gas, oil and coal, biomass) is the main factor in the creation of CO2. The existing technological processes used to capture CO2 include cryogenic distillation of air, condensation to remove condensable organic vapors from gas mixtures, and amine absorption together with biological, oceanic, chemical, and geological sequestration by underground injection [1-6]. Because current carbon capture methods are expensive and energy
inefficient, this technology must be refined [7]. Furthermore, CO2 is a renewable fee
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