Effective carbon dioxide sorption by using phyllosilicate anchored poly(quaternary-ammoniumhydroxidemethyl styrene) nanocomposites

ABSTRACT

Polymers are highly promising materials for capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂), a greenhouse gas. Hence in this work, we prepared phyllosilicate supported mesoporous polymer via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation, which is the one among the controlled radical polymerisation. The mesoporous material anchored on dodecanethiol trithiocarbonate acts as a chain transfer agent (CTA) for the polymerisation of chloromethyl styrene and further conversion to quaternary ammonium compound which is effective to trap CO₂ using tertiary amine. The synthesised porous phyllosilicate/polymer nanocomposites have been characterised by using various analytical tools. The CO₂ sorption experiments were carried out by passing CO₂ onto the synthesised porous phyllosilicate/polymer nanocomposites. The sorption kinetics was monitored by X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra in the presence of carbonate were obtained by reaction of quaternary ammonium hydroxide and CO₂. The phyllosilicate anchored macromolecular CTA (macro-CTA) and the surface-initiated polymer nanocomposites encompassed apparent surface areas of 94.5 and 26.8 m² g⁻¹, respectively. In addition, the total pore volumes calculated for the macro-CTA and polymer were found to be 0.27 and 0.095 cm³g⁻¹, while the average pore sizes were 14.24 and 11.46 nm, respectively. The CO₂ sorption capacity of the phyllosilicate/polymer nanocomposites, monitored at different temperatures, is the fastest for 25°C but slower for the sample treated at 50°C which may due to the dipole and quadrupole interaction.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Nanopolymers
• RAFT polymerisation
• poly(chloromethyl styrene)
• CO₂ adsorption
• Tertiary amine

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank for the financial support by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in Taiwan under the contract number of MOST-104-2221-E-035-004-MY3. The author SA thanks, DST-SERB (EMR/2014/000009), New Delhi for the sanction of research fund towards the development of new facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan: [Grant Number MOST-104-2221-E-035-004-MY3].