Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for Carbon Dioxide Capture

CO₂ capture and storage is the process of capturing carbon dioxide waste from large point sources. This process is an essential component of by-product elimination in carbon-containing fuels. Currently, known adsorbents suffer from low efficiency and selectivity capabilities. In the field of CO₂ capture, synthesizing a material that has the ability to adsorb CO₂ while also possessing a large surface area for capture is critical. This research explores the potential of metal oxide nanoparticles as a CO₂ capture material, specifically magnesium oxide, because of their ability to chemically adsorb CO₂. A main drawback of metal oxide nanoparticles is the difficulty of making them with high pore volumes or surface areas, which plays a significant role in materials’ capture capacity and recyclability. Our method of synthesizing metal oxide nanoparticles constitutes calcining metal organic frameworks in order to volatilize the organics away and to form porous oxide networks with the metals, a method that is hoped to yield materials with high surface areas and pore volumes. After synthesizing magnesium oxide nanoparticles, we test them for carbon dioxide capture. Preliminary results show that our materials may increase regeneration resistance of the solid. Further investigation is necessary to draw anymore conclusions, including developing robust carbon dioxide capture and recycling test methods.