Sustainable Building Materials Employing Solid Diamines as CO2 Sorbents

S Lee, Y.-H. Ahn*, D.-Y. Koh*, Korean J. Chem. Eng., in press (2022)

The storage of large quantities of CO2 in a chemically-bonded framework is a key factor in establishing an energy efficient and environmentally sound society. Solvent scrubbing process provides economically feasible way to capture CO2 industrially, however it suffers from intrinsic problems such as corrosion/leakage problems, difficulty with regeneration process and potential environmental issues. In this regard, solid adsorbent is deemed as a next-generation carbon-capture platform. However, most reported materials involve complex and expensive synthesis processes, hampering their practical use in the field. Inspired by the concept of solid-supported amines and by the reversible sorption of CO2 in amine solutions, in this paper, we assess the CO2 sorption performance of raw diamine solid molecule of p-phenylenediamine (pPD) which could be coupled with construction materials to meet the design construction standards for sustainable buildings. CO2 sorption induced structural transformation of pPD and morphology-change induced enhancement of CO2 sorption kinetic is presented.