Solubility of Carbon Dioxide in Deep Eutectic Solvents Based on 3-Amino-1-Propanol and Tetraalkylammonium Salts at Low Pressure

Abstract

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) became an object of a great interest as an alternative to ionic liquids (ILs) and commonly used in CO2 capture amine solutions. In the present study, five different DESs based on 3-amino-1-propanol as physical-chemical CO2 absorbents were used. The composition was chosen in order to estimate the effects of hydrogen bond acceptor:hydrogen bond donor (HBA:HBD) molar ratio, anion type and length of alkyl chain of composing salt. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to confirm chemical reaction. The solubility of CO2 was measured at low pressures up to 170 kPa at the temperature range of 293–318 K. Viscosity, polarity and Kamlet–Taft parameters were determined in order to estimate the dependences of the parameters and the CO2 capacity. CO2 uptake was observed to improve with decreasing molar ratio of hydrogen bond donor. Comparing the CO2 capacity of [TBAC]-based DESs, at the approximate pressure of 50 kPa, it was observed that the capacity increased in the following order of molar ratios—1:8 < 1:6 < 1:4 and a decrease in molar ratio from 1:8 to 1:4 resulted in about a 100% increase of capacity. Compared to [TBAC][AP] DESs, the [TEAC][AP] 1:4 and [TBAB][AP] 1:4 exhibited higher CO2 uptake, though the best results were obtained for [TBAB][AP].