Assessing CO₂ Adsorption on Amino-Functionalized Mesocellular Foams Synthesized at Different Aging Temperatures

A wide variety of solid sorbents has recently been synthesized for application in CO₂ adsorption. Among them, mesoporous silicas deserve attention because of their ability to accommodate large concentrations of different chemicals as a consequence of their surface chemistry and tunable pore structure. Functionalized materials exhibit promising features for CO₂ adsorption at high temperatures and low CO₂ concentrations. This work aimed to assess the influence of the textural properties on the performance of CO₂ adsorption on functionalized mesoporous silica. With this goal, several mesoporous silica foams were synthesized by varying the aging temperature, obtaining materials with larger pore diameter. Thus, the synthesized materials were functionalized by grafting or impregnation with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, polyethylenimine, and tetraethylenepentamine as amine sources. Finally, the amino functionalized materials were assessed for CO₂ capture by means of equilibrium adsorption isotherms at 25, 45, and 65°C. Among the most outstanding results, high aging temperatures favor the performance of impregnated materials by exposing greater pore diameters. Low or intermediate temperatures favor grafting by preserving an appropriate density of silanol groups.