Increasing concerns of global climate change have led to the development of new technologies to decrease anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. A major source of anthropogenic CO2 emission is the combustion of carbon-based fuels. CO2 sequestration in industrial settings utilizes aqueous solutions of ethanolamine to reduce emissions.  Our research seeks to increase efficiency of CO2 capture from coal flue gases utilizing catalyst mimics of the biological enzyme carbonic anhydrase. The current state-of-the-art catalyst, Zn-Cyclen, is reported to have a second order rate constant of ~2000 M-1s-1. The focus of this research is the synthesis and characterization of a new zinc catalyst, which we produced on a multi-gram scale. This catalyst has a relative rate for CO2 capture that is approximately two orders of magnitude higher than Zn-Cyclen.  This presentation will focus on the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic performance of the new catalyst.

Zinc catalyst for carbon capture

245th National Meeting (2013)

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