Molecular simulation studies of CO2 adsorption by carbon model compounds for carbon capture and sequestration applications.

Effects of oxygen-containing surface functionalities on the adsorption of mixtures including CO(2)/CH(4), CO(2)/N(2), and CO(2)/H(2)O have been investigated in the current work. Together with Bader charge analysis, electronic structure calculations have provided the initial framework comprising both the geometry and corresponding charge information required to carry out statistical-based molecular simulations. The adsorption isotherms and selectivity of CO(2) from CO(2)/N(2), CO(2)/CH(4), and CO(2)/H(2)O gas mixtures were determined by grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations at temperature/pressure conditions relevant to carbon capture and sequestration applications. The interactions between the surfaces with induced polarity and nonpolar/polar molecules have been investigated. It has been observed that, due to the induced polarity of the surface functionalization, the selectivity of CO(2) over CH(4) increases from approximately 2 to higher than 5, and the selectivity of CO(2) over N(2) increases from approximately 5 to 20, especially in the low-pressure regime. However, water vapor will always preferentially adsorb over CO(2) in carbon-based systems containing oxygen functionalized surfaces at conditions relevant to carbon capture application. Molecular simulation results indicate that the surface chemistry in micropores is tunable thereby influencing the selectivity for enhanced uptake of CO(2).