Research Projects

Implementing CO2 capture within power plants requires the discovery of novel materials displaying suitable physiochemical properties that will reduce the high energy requirements needed to execute the capture step. Capturing CO2 from the atmosphere through direct air capture (DAC) is even more challenging as the concentrations of CO2 are typically very low, around 400 ppm. To address these challenges, we propose a new class of COFs with purposefully chosen geometrically challenged linkers that infuse intrinsic molecular volume into the matrix. This unique design strategy has several advantages, including lightweight, high tunability, excellent flexibility, and intrinsic microporosity, making them an excellent candidate for CO2 uptake. The COFs also possess hydrophobic pores, resulting in high CO2 selectivity due to homoconjugation. Furthermore, these COFs offer several benefits, including easy pore surface engineering, ordered pore distribution, low energy penalty for regeneration, good stability, predetermined structures, high structural varieties, and rich porosities, making them highly tunable. We are excited to propose a simple yet unique strategy for synthesizing a covalent organic framework (COF) using a geometrically challenged linker for the first time. This COF will be useful for the selective capture and storage of CO2 due to its well-defined crystalline structure, ordered micropores with intrinsic molecular volume, and suitable chemical environment. These proposed materials can potentially emerge as crucial materials for the aforementioned tasks like DAC. Our laboratory is currently focused on designing and synthesizing these new COFs. Our goals are as follows: (1) to design and synthesize the linkers, (2) to synthesize geometrically challenged COFs, (3) to incorporate CO2 sequestration units like amines within the framework, (4) to measure carbon dioxide storage both in dry and humid condition form open air and (5) to evaluate volumetric and gravimetric carbon dioxide capture and release performance for multiple cycles. The adsorption of CO2 in the presence of water is an important aspect of practical applications, as most gas streams contain moisture. Evaluating the adsorption and diffusion characteristics of H2O on the sorbent is critical. In this work, we will study these through a set of experimental methods, such as volumetry for pure H2O measurements and a combination of dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) and breakthrough for competitive CO2-H2O measurements. Such experiments will not only reveal the behavior of the sorbent under real-world conditions but also provide input data for process simulations. In this task, process simulation and optimization will be conducted to identify operating conditions that will maximize the performance of the sorbent. The experimental work will be carried out at a lab scale employing a homemade experimental unit.