Reverse engineering and synthesis of self-assembling photo-responsive surfactants for CO2 solubilization

将会找到一种控制液态二氧化碳性质的新方法。这将允许使用光作为开关来远程控制二氧化碳的液体性质。今天，降低大气二氧化碳水平是科学家、工程师、政治家和经济学家面临的最大挑战。1在提出的所有解决方案中，二氧化碳捕获、封存和储存被认为是控制二氧化碳水平的可行方法。然而，二氧化碳捕获和储存技术将需要对二氧化碳的流体性质进行高效和有效的控制；显然，大量的液体二氧化碳将需要处理和加工。例如，如果可以通过增厚二氧化碳来抑制粘性指进，那么在二氧化碳提高采收率(EOR)过程中发生的砂岩或石灰岩储层中的二氧化碳封存将在经济上更加可行，技术上也更有效。尽管纸面上的概念看起来很简单，即找到与scCO2相容的添加剂，就像通常对水所做的那样(肥皂和洗涤剂、合成和生物聚合物、盐和共溶剂)，但实际上需要克服重大的物理化学障碍。归根结底，这一切都是因为一个不可避免的事实，即微弱的分子间相互作用使二氧化碳成为一种非常弱的溶剂，与水和任何其他极性或非极性有机溶剂相比，二氧化碳基本上是一种独特的溶剂。其结果是，大多数商业上可用的溶质与scCO2不相容，因此使用现成的添加剂进行溶剂改性的范围充其量是极其有限的。简单地说，二氧化碳是所有化学动物中最顽固的之一，驯服它是一个巨大的化学工程挑战。该项目将设计和生产新的添加剂(表面活性剂)，并使用外部光：这将使我们能够控制二氧化碳流体的性质，只要轻轻一按开关，因为这是不能使用任何目前可用的化学品。。这将为优化工业化学过程中的二氧化碳作为一种环境友好的溶剂打开大门，也将为在碳捕获技术中处理和处理液体二氧化碳，以便有效地进行地下储存打开大门。

A new way to control properties of liquid CO2 will be found. This will allow the liquid properties of CO2 to be remote-controlled, using light as a switch. Today, reduction in atmospheric CO2 levels is the greatest challenge facing scientists, engineers, politicians and economists.1 Of all the solutions proposed CO2 capture, sequestration and storage is recognized as a viable approach to control CO2 levels. However, CO2 entrapment and storage technologies will require efficient and effective command over the fluid properties of CO2; obviously, vast volumes of liquid CO2 will need to be handled and processed. For example, CO2 sequestration in sandstone or limestone reservoirs that occurs during CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) would be more economically viable and technically efficient if viscous fingering could be suppressed by thickening the CO2. Although on paper the concept appears to be straightforward, that is find scCO2-compatible additives, as is commonly done for water (soaps and detergents, synthetic and bio-polymers, salts and co-solvents), in practice there are significant physico-chemical barriers to overcome. What it all comes down to is the inescapable fact that feeble intermolecular interactions make CO2 a very weak solvent, being essentially in a class of its own when compared to water and any other polar or apolar organic solvents. The upshot is that most commercially available solutes are incompatible with scCO2, and so the scope for solvent modification using readily available additives is at best extremely limited. Simply put, CO2 is one of the most stubborn of all chemical beasts, and taming it presents a great chemical engineering challenge. This project will design and generate new additives (surfactants) which and be using external light: this will allow us to control the CO2 fluid properties at the flick of a switch , as this cannot be done using any of the currently available chemicals. . This would open the doors to optimization of CO2 for industrial chemistry processes, as an environmentally friendly solvent, and also for processing and handling fluid CO2 in carbon capture technologies, for effective subterranean storage.