Browsing by Author "Dillon, Eoghan P."

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    Cross-Linking Amine-Rich Compounds into High Performing Selective CO2 Absorbents
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2014) Andreoli, Enrico; Dillon, Eoghan P.; Cullum, Laurie; Alemany, Lawrence B.; Barron, Andrew R.; Shared Equipment Authority
    Amine-based absorbents play a central role in CO2 sequestration and utilization. Amines react selectively with CO2, but a drawback is the unproductive weight of solvent or support in the absorbent. Efforts have focused on metal organic frameworks (MOFs) reaching extremely high CO2 capacity, but limited selectivity to N2 and CH4, and decreased uptake at higher temperatures. A desirable system would have selectivity (cf. amine) and high capacity (cf. MOF), but also increased adsorption at higher temperatures. Here, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept where polyethyleneimine (PEI) is converted to a high capacity and highly selective CO2 absorbent using buckminsterfullerene (C60) as a cross-linker. PEI-C60 (CO2 absorption of 0.14 g/g at 0.1 bar/90°C) is compared to one of the best MOFs, Mg-MOF-74 (0.06 g/g at 0.1 bar/90°C), and does not absorb any measurable amount of CH4 at 50 bar. Thus, PEI-C60 can perform better than MOFs in the sweetening of natural gas.
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    Polyethyleneimine functionalized nano-carbons for the absorption of carbon dioxide
    (2012) Dillon, Eoghan P.; Barron, Andrew R.
    The evolution of nanotechnology over the past 20 years has allowed researchers to use a wide variety of techniques and instruments to synthesize and characterize new materials on the nano scale. Due to their size, these nano materials have a wide variety of interesting properties, including, high tensile strength, novel electronic and optical properties and high surface areas. In any absorption system, a high surface areas is desirable, making carbon nano materials ideal candidates for use in absorption systems. To that end, we have prepared a variety of nano carbons, single walled carbon nanotubes, multi walled carbon nanotubes, graphite intercalation compounds, graphite oxide, phenylalanine modified graphite and fullerenes, for the absorption of carbon dioxide. These nano carbons are functionalized with the polymer, polyethyleneimine, and fully characterized using Raman spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, solid state 13 C NMR, and thermogravimetric analysis. The carbon dioxide absorption potential of the PEI-nano carbons was evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis at standard room temperature and pressure. We have demonstrated the high gravimetric capacity of carbon dioxide capture on these materials with extremely high capacities for PEI-C 60 .