Ultrafast Carbon Dioxide Sorption Kinetics Using Lithium Silicate Nanowires.

In this paper, the Li4SiO4 nanowires (NWs) were shown to be promising for CO2 capture with ultrafast kinetics. Specifically, the nanowire powders exhibited an uptake of 0.35 g g-1 of CO2 at an ultrafast adsorption rate of 0.22 g g-1 min-1 at 650-700 °C. Lithium silicate (Li4SiO4) nanowires and nanopowders were synthesized using a "solvo-plasma" technique involving plasma oxidation of silicon precursors mixed with lithium hydroxide. The kinetic parameter values (k) extracted from sorption kinetics obtained using NW powders are 1 order of magnitude higher than those previously reported for the Li4SiO4-CO2 reaction system. The time scales for CO2 sorption using nanowires are approximately 3 min and two orders magnitude faster compared to those obtained using lithium silicate powders with spherical morphologies and aggregates. Furthermore, Li4SiO4 nanowire powders showed reversibility through sorption-desorption cycles indicating their suitability for CO2 capture applications. All of the morphologies of Li4SiO4 powders exhibited a double exponential behavior in the adsorption kinetics indicating two distinct time constants for kinetic and the mass transfer limited regimes.