Encapsulated deep eutectic solvent and carbonic anhydrase jointly by microfluidics for high capture performance of carbon dioxide

Abstract

Excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion have a profound impact on environment, leading to different associated climate disasters. Although deep eutectic solvents (DES) have the advantage of high absorption capacity of CO2, their high viscosities sharply decrease absorption performance due to the low absorption rates. Herein, one of DES choline chloride / urea (CU) and carbonic anhydrase (CA) was encapsulated jointly by microfluidics and crosslinked thermally (microcapsule@(CU + CA)), which was designed for high capture performance of CO2. The absorption abilities of microcapsules have been significantly improved by the increase of specific surface area, in which the absorption capacity and absorption rate of microcapsule@(CU + CA) were 74 times and 253 times higher than that of neat CU. In addition, the selectivity of CO2/CH4 also increased 62 times via encapsulation. The high cyclic performance of microcapsule@(CU + CA) was achieved for its high absorption performance and high ability to desorb CO2 from microcapsule. DES and CA encapsulated jointly by microfluidics can realize high absorption capacity, high absorption rate and high absorption selectivity simultaneously, and it also provides a potential pathway for the efficient capture of various gases.