(384c) Electrochemical Screening of Ionic Liquids for Direct Air Capture

Reducing CO₂ emissions in the environment while coping with global energy demand is challenging and needs to be urgently addressed. It has resulted in massive investment in research efforts directed toward carbon capture. Direct air capture (DAC) is an attractive technology that utilizes physical or chemical sorbents to capture CO₂ directly from the air. Ionic Liquids (ILs) are promising agents for implementing DAC technologies due to their low vapor pressure, high CO₂ capture capacities, and ease of tailoring their constitutive ions. A gamut of studies has reported the solubilities of CO₂ using ILs. However, the urgent need to upscale the DAC-based ILs demands accelerated screening to determine ILs with high CO₂ capture capacities. Herein, we report the development of a high throughput electrochemical screening method of ILs assisted with a robotic hand to capture CO₂. The process uses a well-established electrochemical technique, i.e., cyclic voltammetry, to determine the diffusion coefficient of CO₂ in ILs and the concentration of dissolved CO₂. Studies related to the electrocatalytic properties of the electrodes for screening, varying concentrations of CO₂ in ILs, and the effect of impurities on screening will be reported as a part of this work.