Carbonation of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Caged in MOF Structure

Reaction-based process of separating CO₂ from flue gas is traditionally based on the carbonation of solid metal oxide, MO, with gaseous CO₂ to yield the metal carbonate, MCO₃. The regeneration to MO is performed by heating the MCO₃ beyond the calcination temperature which accompanies the release of CO₂. Regarding the huge surface area nanoparticles exhibits, in this research metal oxides nanoparticles (e.g. CaO) is aimed to grow inside the cages of metal organic framework structures (e.g. ZIF-7) and investigate the performance of the caged nanoparticles in carbonation/calcination processes. Such structure can provide metal oxides with the size of ~10nm for the reaction without problem of agglomeration and, hence, losing surface area during courses of carbonation/calcination.