US-12616931-B2 - High performance gas adsorbing material

US12616931B2US 12616931 B2US12616931 B2US 12616931B2US-12616931-B2

Abstract

A high-performance gas adsorbing material includes a monolithic bi-continuous material formed without joints or seams from a sorbent formed predominantly of amine functional groups exclusive of hydrophilic tethers positioned therebetween. For instance, the high-performance gas adsorbing material monolith includes: a. a bi-continuous structure consisting of a sorbent; b. a mixture of at least two different amine-containing input molecules providing porous surfaces inside the structure multiplicity of uniform gas pathways therethrough; c. beta-hydroxy alkyl functional groups accessorizing the sorbent; and, d. different hydrophilic tethers connecting different ones of the beta-hydroxy alkyl functional groups e. wherein the bi-continuous structure is predominantly alkyl amine functional groups exclusive of the different hydrophilic tethers.

Inventors

Matthew Nicholson Lee
Benjamin Peter Warner

Assignees

SPIRITUS TECHNOLOGIES, PBC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230908

Claims (11)

1 . A high-performance gas adsorbing material comprising a monolithic bi-continuous material formed without joints or seams from a sorbent formed predominantly of alkyl amine functional groups exclusive of hydrophilic tethers positioned therebetween.
2 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the alkyl amine functional groups are accessorized with beta-hydroxy alkyl functional groups, wherein different pairs of the beta-hydroxy alkyl functional groups are connected with corresponding ones of the hydrophilic tethers.
3 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the bi-continuous material has a three-dimensional structure having a surface, the surface consisting essentially of saddle points.
4 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the bi-continuous material has a three-dimensional structure having a surface with zero mean curvature.
5 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the bi-continuous material has a three-dimensional structure having a surface with an average Gaussian curvature which is negative.
6 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the bi-continuous material has a three-dimensional structure having a surface, wherein the surface is porous.
7 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the bi-continuous material provides a distribution of sizes of pathways therethrough.
8 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 7 , wherein the distribution of sizes of pathways are polymodal.
9 . The high-performance gas adsorbing material of claim 1 , further comprising a second set of alkyl amine functional groups, wherein the second set of alkyl amine functional groups are derived from a first amine containing oligomer having a first ratio of nitrogen to carbon, and the second set of alkyl amine functional groups are derived from a second amine containing oligomer having a second ratio of carbon to nitrogen.
10 . A high-performance gas adsorbing material monolith comprising: a. a bi-continuous structure consisting of a sorbent; b. a mixture of at least two different amine-containing input molecules providing porous surfaces inside the structure and which provide a multiplicity of uniform gas pathways therethrough; c. beta-hydroxy alkyl functional groups accessorizing the sorbent; and, d. different hydrophilic tethers connecting different ones of the beta-hydroxy alkyl functional groups; e. wherein the bi-continuous structure is predominantly alkyl amine functional groups exclusive of the different hydrophilic tethers.
11 . A high-performance gas adsorbing monolith material consisting essentially of alkyl amine functional groups, where the material comprises a three-dimensional structure having a surface, said surface consisting essentially of saddle points, a hierarchy of pathways and amine functional groups.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the field of gas adsorption and more particularly to a gas adsorption sorbent. Description of the Related Art Adsorption refers to the increase in concentration of a substance at an interface of a condensed and a liquid or gaseous layer owing to the operation of surface forces. More concretely, adsorption is the adhesion of molecules of gas, liquid, or dissolved solids to a surface. The adsorption process results in the creation of a film of an adsorbate upon a surface of an adsorbent. Adsorption differs from absorption in which one substance permeates another. As well, whereas adsorption can be characterized as a surface phenomenon, absorption involves the whole volume of the material. Like surface tension, adsorption is a consequence of surface energy. Adsorption capitalizes upon the tendency of one or more components of a liquid or gas to collect on the surface of a solid. This tendency can be leveraged to remove solutes from a liquid or gas or to separate components that have different affinities for the solid. The process objective may be either waste treatment or the purification of valuable components of a feed stream. In an adsorption process, the solid is called the adsorbent and the solute is known as the adsorbate. In a bulk material, all the bonding requirements, whether ionic, covalent or metallic, of the constituent atoms of the bulk material are fulfilled by other atoms in the material. However, those atoms on the surface of the adsorbent are not wholly surrounded by other adsorbent atoms and therefore can attract adsorbates. The exact nature of the bonding depends on the details of the species involved, but the adsorption process is generally classified as physisorption characteristic of weak van der Waals forces, or chemisorption which is characteristic of covalent bonding. It is also understood by those of skill in the art, that adsorption also may occur owing to electrostatic attraction. As to physisorption, the affinity of a fluid component for a particular adsorbent depends upon the molecular characteristics of the adsorbent such as the size, shape, and polarity of the surface of the adsorbent, the partial pressure or concentration in the fluid, and the system temperature. Importantly, the bonding energies in the adsorption process are substantially lower than typical covalent bond energies thus allowing for low energy desorption. As such, the adsorption bonding energy is high enough for adsorption to occur, yet low enough to allow the adsorbent to be regenerated by removing the adsorbed molecules. Essential to any large-scale adsorption and desorption process, then, is the characteristics of the sorbent, the optimization of use of the surface area of the sorbent in order to achieve a maximum volume of adsorbate bound to the surface of the sorbent, and the resiliency of the structural integrity of the sorbent when subjected to multiple cycles of adsorption and desorption and the wide fluctuation of temperatures to which the sorbent is subject during each of the adsorption and desorption processes. Of note, the foregoing is of little consequence in a laboratory setting where the little sorbent that is required for the purpose of the laboratory is subjected to only a few adsorption and desorption cycles. But in an industrial setting where millions of tons of adsorbate must be processed in a given year utilizing costly sorbent materials, the efficiency of adsorption demonstrated by an adsorption system is of paramount importance. To that end, in the field of gas chromatography, it is understood that a high surface area sorbent is necessary to achieve efficient gas adsorption. Indeed, the extent to which adsorption based chromatography is effective depends in no small part to the surface area of the supporting structure of the sorbent. Three types of adsorbents are generally used in adsorption chromatography—namely polar acidic supports, polar basic supports, and nonpolar supports, including most typically silica, surface silanol groups and alumina. Other types of supports that can be used in adsorption chromatography are nonpolar adsorbents such as charcoal and polystyrene. Of note, though, none are effective for the purpose of the gas adsorption of carbon dioxide. The gas adsorption of carbon dioxide has proven critical in the modern technique of direct air capture (DAC) and sequestration (DAC+S). DAC+S involves the direct air capture of carbon dioxide present in atmosphere and the subsequent desorption of the captured carbon dioxide for ultimate sequestration in a storage facility such as an underground geologic chamber. To meaningfully remove large enough quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere so as to reduce the consequence of global carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, DAC+S must be performed at the mega-ton scale. Unfortunately, the sorbents commonly used in chromatography are uniqu