A comprehensive review on the application of aerogels in CO2-adsorption: Materials and characterisation

Abstract

• Comprehensive exploration and critique of aerogels as promising CO 2 -capture materials. • Perspectives on aerogels’ tunable surface chemistry and proper textural properties. • Focus on characterisation, process economics and performance. • Detailed outlook towards prospects for future CO 2 -capture deployment. Recently, greenhouse gases - especially CO 2 – have been released into the atmosphere in ever-increasing quantities through activities such as industrial emission and combustion. Owing to their high absorption capacities, they appear to be implicated causatively in observed increases in surface temperature and global climate changes. Between porous solid sorbents, aerogels have recently been considered as promising adsorbents for CO 2 capture due to their tunable surface chemistry and proper textural properties. Currently, a variety of different aerogels are being developed at laboratory scale, and some of them have been taken to pilot production. In order to explore the commercialisation-feasibility of aerogels as CO 2 capture adsorbents, more research needs to be done on low-cost materials and production processes, with low or controlled sorption of water as well as a good thermal regeneration capacity. In this review paper, different aspects of scientific investigations on CO 2 -sorption applications of aerogels have been studied. The review contains seven main sections: preparation, characterisation, modification of aerogels, literature studies on CO 2 -sorption performances, kinetic and thermodynamic models on CO 2 adsorption, important factors on CO 2 capture and outlook for future perspectives.