Microporous CO2 Capture Membranes Promoted by Carbonic Anhydrase-Mimetic Catalyst

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Here, we develop novel mimic enzyme promoted CO2 facilitated transport membranes for CO2 capture. The hystidyl bolaamphiphile compound with amino acid heads and alkyl chain body was synthesized. The bolaamphiphile solution were incubated with ZnCl2 in different concentrations (0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 mM) to generate CA-mimetic particles through coordination of Zn2+ ions with the histidine imidazole groups. The self-assembled particles with the highest catalytic efficiency (~0.59 M-1.s-1) was selected as the nanofiller to enhance the CO2 separation performance of PEG-based polymers. The SEM image showed the uniform dispersion of the particles inside the polymer matrix due to the strong interactions. The significant enhancement (up to 100%) in the CO2/N2 selectivity of the composite membranes compared with the pure polymer matrices was observed. The high CO2 adsorption of the CA-mimic particles and their catalytic functionality are the main reasons for this observation.