Porous metal complexes for CO2 capturing

Abstract

The need in energy has resulted in the burning of fossil fuels at an increasingly high level. The consequence is a release of high volumes of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the atmosphere. This gas is a major greenhouse gas which causes global warming. There is therefore a great need to efficiently sequestrate this gas (CO2) for a sustainable economic development and environment. A new class of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) is a promising high potential application in carbon dioxide capture. In the current study, synthetic methods were developed for the design of porous cobalt succinates and nickel hydroxy-terephthalates for CO2 adsorption. The methods developed and interrogated include, sonication, hydrothermal synthesis (at room temperature, reflux and Parr reactor), and microwave synthesis. The conventional cobalt chloride hexahydrate was substituted by cobalt acetate for synthesis at room temperature. Cobalt acetate was used to replace cobalt chloride in the synthesis of cobalt succinate at room temperature and led to a new cobalt succinate complex (CoS-Ac). The complexe CoS-Ac differs from CoS synthesized from cobalt chloride hexahydrate. Synthesis of cobalt succinate via sonication (CoS-sn) was achieved in 45 min and the structure of the complex was different when synthesized via the hydrothermal route (under reflux) abbreviated CoS-th.