(521w) Characterization of CO2 Binding and Reaction Mechanisms on Alkaline Dual Function Materials (DFMs) for Reactive Carbon Capture to Useful C1 Products

As the world endures environmental crises associated with climate change and the rise of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations from anthropogenic CO₂ emission, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies are increasingly necessary. Reactive carbon capture (RCC) technologies, in which capture and conversion of CO₂ occur in a single reactor, are more energetically and economically attractive by avoiding the need to purify, compress, and transport the captured CO₂. To this end, the development of dual function materials (DFM) that enable CO₂ capture and conversion to useful C1 products, namely (1) methane, (2) CO, and (3) methanol, are attractive near-term targets for commercial CCU processes for renewable fuels and chemicals.

DFM are composed of sorbents and catalysts co-dispersed on the same high surface area carrier. The sorbent component allows for selective capture of CO₂ from a gas stream and the catalyst component subsequently performs the in-situ conversion of the adsorbed CO₂ upon introduction of a reactive gas (typically H₂). The survey of DFM formulations reveals a variety of sorbent+catalyst combinations of interest. There is, however, a lack of depth in fundamental understanding of how the CO₂ binds to these materials and how the subsequent reaction mechanisms are affected, which are critical features for the development of next-generation materials with improved performance. To this end, we will describe in this work the CO₂ binding characteristics and subsequent reaction mechanisms on a variety of DFMs and their sorbent/catalyst-only counterparts. The surface CO₂ binding mechanism, capture capacity, and interaction with hydrogenating catalysts for subsequent reaction will be probed using techniques such as in-situ DRIFTS, operando TGA, and CO₂ chemisorption.