Novel Polyethylenimine-Modified Mesoporous Molecular Sieve of MCM-41 Type as High-Capacity Adsorbent for CO 2 Capture

The objective of the work presented here is to develop a nanoporous solid adsorbent which can serve as a “molecular basket” for CO2 in the condensed form. Polyethylenimine (PEI)-modified mesoporous molecular sieve of MCM-41 type (MCM-41-PEI) has been prepared and tested as a CO2 adsorbent. The physical properties of the adsorbents were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The characterizations indicated that the structure of the MCM-41 was preserved after loading the PEI, and the PEI was uniformly dispersed into the channels of the molecular sieve. The CO2 adsorption/desorption performance was tested in a flow system using a…