New research finds way to scrub carbon dioxide from factory emissions, make useful products
Carbon dioxide can be harvested from smokestacks and used to create commercially valuable chemicals thanks to a novel compound developed by a scientific collaboration led by an Oregon State University researcher.
Published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the study shows that the new metal organic framework, loaded with a common industrial chemical, propylene oxide, can catalyze the production of cyclic carbonates while scrubbing CO2 from factory flue gases.
Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, results from burning fossil fuels and is one of the primary causes of climate change. Cyclic carbonates are a class of compounds with great industrial interest, meaning the findings are a boost for green-economy initiatives because they show useful products such as battery electrolytes and pharmaceutical precursors can be derived from the same process deployed to clean emissions from manufacturing facilities.
The new, three-dimensional, lanthanide-based metal organic framework, or MOF, can also be used to catalyze cyclic carbonate production from biogas, a mix of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases arising from the decomposition of organic matter.
A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change, and lanthanides are a group of soft, silvery-white metals whose applications range from night vision goggles to flints for cigarette lighters.
Examples of lanthanides include cerium, europium and gadolinium.
"We've taken a big step toward solving a crucial challenge associated with the hoped-for circular carbon economy by developing an effective catalyst," said chemistry researcher Kyriakos Stylianou of the OSU College of Science, who led the study. "A key to that is understanding the molecular interactions between the active sites in MOFs with potentially reactive molecules."
A MOF is an inorganic-organic hybrid, a crystalline porous material made up of positively charged metal ions surrounded by organic "linker" molecules, in this case lanthanide metals and tetracarboxylate linkers.
The metal ions make nodes that bind the linkers' arms to form a repeating structure that looks something like a cage; the structure has nanosized pores that adsorb gases, similar to a sponge. MOFs can be designed with a variety of components, which determine the MOF's properties.
Lanthanide-based materials are generally stable because of the relatively large size of lanthanide ions, Stylianou said, and that's true as well with lanthanide MOFs, where the acidic metals form strong bonds with the linkers, keeping the MOFs stable in water and at high temperatures; that's important because flue gases and biogas are hot as well as moisture rich.
The lanthanide MOFs are also selective for carbon dioxide, meaning they're not bothered by the presence of the other gases contained by industrial emissions and biogas.
"We observed that within the pores, propylene oxide can directly bind to the cerium centers and activate interactions for the cycloaddition of carbon dioxide," Stylianou said. "Using our MOFs, stable after multiple cycles of carbon dioxide capture and conversion, we describe the fixation of carbon dioxide into the propylene oxide's epoxy ring for the production of cyclic carbonates."
Cyclic carbonates have a broad range of industrial applications, including as polar solvents, precursors for polycarbonate materials such as eyeglass lenses and digital discs, electrolytes in lithium batteries, and precursors for pharmaceuticals.
"These are very exciting findings," Stylianou said. "And being able to directly use carbon dioxide from impure sources saves the cost and energy of separating it before it can be used to make cyclic carbonates, which will be a boon for the green economy."
David Le, Ryan Loughran and Isabelle Brooks of the College of Science collaborated on this research, as did scientists from Columbia University and the University of Cambridge.Enhanced stability in the presence of water could help reduce smokestack emissions of greenhouse gases
More information: David H. Le et al, Lanthanide metal–organic frameworks for the fixation of CO2 under aqueous-rich and mixed-gas conditions, Journal of Materials Chemistry A (2021). DOI: 10.1039/D1TA09463G
Journal information: Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Provided by Oregon State University
OSU research finds way to scrub carbon dioxide from factory emissions, make useful products
January 03, 2022
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Carbon dioxide can be harvested from smokestacks and used to create commercially valuable chemicals thanks to a novel compound developed by a scientific collaboration led by an Oregon State University researcher.
Published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the study shows that the new metal organic framework, loaded with a common industrial chemical, propylene oxide, can catalyze the production of cyclic carbonates while scrubbing CO2 from factory flue gases.
Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, results from burning fossil fuels and is one of the primary causes of climate change. Cyclic carbonates are a class of compounds with great industrial interest, meaning the findings are a boost for green-economy initiatives because they show useful products such as battery electrolytes and pharmaceutical precursors can be derived from the same process deployed to clean emissions from manufacturing facilities.
The new, three-dimensional, lanthanide-based metal organic framework, or MOF, can also be used to catalyze cyclic carbonate production from biogas, a mix of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases arising from the decomposition of organic matter.
A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change, and lanthanides are a group of soft, silvery-white metals whose applications range from night vision goggles to flints for cigarette lighters.
Examples of lanthanides include cerium, europium and gadolinium.
“We’ve taken a big step toward solving a crucial challenge associated with the hoped-for circular carbon economy by developing an effective catalyst,” said chemistry researcher Kyriakos Stylianou of the OSU College of Science, who led the study. “A key to that is understanding the molecular interactions between the active sites in MOFs with potentially reactive molecules.”
A MOF is an inorganic-organic hybrid, a crystalline porous material made up of positively charged metal ions surrounded by organic “linker” molecules, in this case lanthanide metals and tetracarboxylate linkers.
The metal ions make nodes that bind the linkers’ arms to form a repeating structure that looks something like a cage; the structure has nanosized pores that adsorb gases, similar to a sponge. MOFs can be designed with a variety of components, which determine the MOF’s properties.
Lanthanide-based materials are generally stable because of the relatively large size of lanthanide ions, Stylianou said, and that’s true as well with lanthanide MOFs, where the acidic metals form strong bonds with the linkers, keeping the MOFs stable in water and at high temperatures; that’s important because flue gases and biogas are hot as well as moisture rich.
The lanthanide MOFs are also selective for carbon dioxide, meaning they’re not bothered by the presence of the other gases contained by industrial emissions and biogas.
“We observed that within the pores, propylene oxide can directly bind to the cerium centers and activate interactions for the cycloaddition of carbon dioxide,” Stylianou said. “Using our MOFs, stable after multiple cycles of carbon dioxide capture and conversion, we describe the fixation of carbon dioxide into the propylene oxide’s epoxy ring for the production of cyclic carbonates.”
Cyclic carbonates have a broad range of industrial applications, including as polar solvents, precursors for polycarbonate materials such as eyeglass lenses and digital discs, electrolytes in lithium batteries, and precursors for pharmaceuticals.
“These are very exciting findings,” Stylianou said. “And being able to directly use carbon dioxide from impure sources saves the cost and energy of separating it before it can be used to make cyclic carbonates, which will be a boon for the green economy.”
David Le, Ryan Loughran and Isabelle Brooks of the College of Science collaborated on this research, as did scientists from Columbia University and the University of Cambridge.
The College of Science and the OSU Honors College funded the study.
About the OSU College of Science: As one of the largest academic units at OSU, the College of Science has seven departments and 12 pre-professional programs. It provides the basic science courses essential to the education of every OSU student, builds future leaders in science, and its faculty are international leaders in scientific research.
Novel Compound Harvests CO2 to Make Useful Product
A scientific collaboration led by a researcher at Oregon State University resulted in the development of a new compound that can harvest carbon dioxide from smokestacks and use it to produce commercially beneficial chemicals.
The study demonstrates that the new metal-organic framework, loaded with a general industrial chemical known as propylene oxide, has the potential to catalyze the production of cyclic carbonates while CO2 is being scrubbed from factory flue gases.
The study has been published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is known to be one of the major reasons for climate change. Cyclic carbonates are considered to be a class of compounds having great industrial interest.
This implies the findings are a boost for green-economy initiatives since they exhibit useful applications like pharmaceutical precursors and battery electrolytes that could be derived from the same process dispensed to clean emissions from manufacturing facilities.
The latest, three-dimensional, lanthanide-based metal-organic framework (MOF) could also be utilized to catalyze cyclic carbonate production from biogas — a mix of methane, carbon dioxide and other gases emerging from the decomposition of organic matter.
A catalyst is defined as a substance that tends to raise the speed of a chemical reaction without experiencing any permanent chemical change, and lanthanides are known to be a group of soft and silvery-white metals whose applications range from night vision goggles to cigarette lighters’ flints.
Examples of lanthanides comprise gadolinium, europium and cerium.
A MOF is an inorganic-organic hybrid, a crystalline porous material composed of positively charged metal ions encircled by the so-called organic “linker” molecules. Here, tetracarboxylate linkers and lanthanide metals are being used.
The metal ions create nodes that exhibit the potential to bind the linkers’ arms to develop a repeating structure that looks somewhat similar to a cage. The structure consists of nanosized pores that adsorb gases, identical to a sponge. MOFs could be designed with a range of components, which decide the properties of MOFs.
Normally, lanthanide-based materials are stable due to the comparatively large size of lanthanide ions. Stylianou feels that is true as well with lanthanide MOFs, where the acidic metals develop powerful bonds with the linkers, retaining the stability of MOFs in water and at high temperatures. This is significant since biogas and flue gases are hot as well as moisture-rich.
Also, the lanthanide MOFs are known to be selective for carbon dioxide, implying they are not bothered by the existence of the other gases contained by biogas and industrial emissions.
Cyclic carbonates consist of a wide range of industrial applications, such as being polar solvents, precursors for polycarbonate materials like digital discs and eyeglass lenses, precursors for pharmaceuticals and electrolytes in lithium batteries.
David Le, Ryan Loughran and Isabelle Brooks of the College of Science collaborated on this study, along with researchers from the University of Cambridge and Columbia University.
The study was financially supported by the College of Science and the OSU Honors College.
Journal Reference:
Le, D. H., et al. (2021) Lanthanide metal–organic frameworks for the fixation of CO2 under aqueous-rich and mixed-gas conditions. Journal of Materials Chemistry A. doi.org/10.1039/D1TA09463G.
Source: https://oregonstate.edu/
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