Development of TRPN dendrimer-modified disordered mesoporous silica for CO2 capture

•A novel series of TRPN dendrimers are synthesized.•Structurally disordered mesoporous silica was used to develop the CO2 adsorbent.•The CO2 adsorption capacity is relatively high.•The sorbent exhibits a high stability after 12 cycling runs.•The sorbent achieves complete desorption at low temperature (60 °C).

A novel series of tri(3-aminopropyl) amine (TRPN) dendrimers were synthesized and impregnated on structurally disordered mesoporous silica (DMS) to generate CO2 adsorbents (TS). The physicochemical and adsorption properties of the adsorbents before and after dendrimer modification were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N2 adsorption–desorption (N2-BET) techniques. CO2 adsorption–desorption tests indicated that the sorbent demonstrates high CO2 adsorption capacity (138.1 mg g−1 for G1 sample TS-G1-3CN-50 and 91.7 mg g−1 for G2 sample TS-G2-6CN-50), and can completely desorb CO2 under vacuum at 60 °C. Its CO2 adsorption capacity at 25 °C increases with the amine loading, achieving the highest adsorption capacity (140.6 mg g−1 for TS-G1-3CN) at 60%. The developed TS materials exhibited excellent cycling stability. After 12 consecutive adsorption–desorption runs, TS-G1-3CN-50 shows an adsorption capacity of 136.0 mg g−1, retaining 98.5% of its original value.

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