Identification of Nano-Metal Oxides That Can Be Synthesized by Precipitation-Calcination Method Reacting Their Chloride Solutions with NaOH Solution and Their Application for Carbon Dioxide Capture from Air—A Thermodynamic Analysis

Abstract

Several metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were already obtained by mixing NaOH solution with chloride solution of the corresponding metal to form metal hydroxide or oxide precipitates and wash—dry—calcine the latter. However, the complete list of metal oxide NPs is missing with which this technology works well. The aim of this study was to fill this knowledge gap and to provide a full list of possible metals for which this technology probably works well. Our methodology was chemical thermodynamics, analyzing solubilities of metal chlorides, metal oxides and metal hydroxides in water and also standard molar Gibbs energy changes accompanying the following: (i) the reaction between metal chlorides and NaOH; (ii) the dissociation reaction of metal hydroxides into metal oxide and water vapor and (iii) the reaction between metal oxides and gaseous carbon dioxide to form metal carbonates. The major result of this paper is that the following metal-oxide NPs can be produced by the above technology from the corresponding metal chlorides: Al2O3, BeO, CaO, CdO, CoO, CuO, FeO, Fe2O3, In2O3, La2O3, MgO, MnO, Nd2O3, NiO, Pr2O3, Sb2O3, Sm2O3, SnO, Y2O3 and ZnO. From the analysis of the literature, the following nine nano-oxides have been already obtained experimentally with this technology: CaO, CdO, Co3O4, CuO, Fe2O3, NiO, MgO, SnO2 and ZnO (note: Co3O4 and SnO2 were obtained under oxidizing conditions during calcination in air). Thus, it is predicted here that the following nano-oxides can be potentially synthesized with this technology in the future: Al2O3, BeO, In2O3, La2O3, MnO, Nd2O3, Pr2O3, Sb2O3, Sm2O3 and Y2O3. The secondary result is that among the above 20 nano-oxides, the following five nano-oxides are able to capture carbon dioxide from air at least down to 42 ppm residual CO2-content, i.e., decreasing the current level of 420 ppm of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere at least tenfold: CaO, MnO, MgO, CdO, CoO. The tertiary result is that by mixing the AuCl3 solution with NaOH solution, Au nano-particles will precipitate without forming Au-oxide NPs. The results are significant for the synthesis of metal nano-oxide particles and for capturing carbon dioxide from air.