Accelerating gas capture and conversion in aqueous systems

从稀薄的气体混合物中捕获和溶解气体是一项紧迫的技术需求。随着温室气体浓度的增加放大了洪水等极端天气事件的严重性，直接空气捕获变得越来越重要。考虑到能源需求，传统的气体捕获方法(气体洗涤器)正在变得过时。迫切需要新的方法来加速气液传质。这项研究计划将研究界面上的基本物理化学相互作用，以加速气体在水体系中的保留和转化。这种新的方法将通过将巨大的气体体积抽取成稳定地保持在微结构固体和像氢氧化钾这样的吸收水溶液之间的薄气片来研究三重固-液-气边界。通过在大面积上形成这些薄而稳定的气膜，将产生两个界面--气-固和气-液界面，可以系统地研究这两个界面以增强传质。这些薄板需要材料方面的进步(具有可操纵的进退接触角的固体)和界面织构工程的进步(可以在超过5平方厘米的面积上保持稳定气体薄膜的微米和纳米织构)。就像纸巾加速水的蒸发一样，通过使用经过精确设计的薄片，气体传质将得到显著增强，该薄片使用的框架包含了界面相互作用的时间尺度和长度尺度。气体薄膜的具体体现，虽然对科学研究有好处，但可以扩大到连续加工。一种关键的性质是“钉扎”，即气液界面在固体上滞留。放大到微米长度尺度，将回答的第一个问题是作为表面微纹理参数的函数的层的稳定性。在表面化学区域(分子长度尺度)，稀土陶瓷将被研究。已经证明，它们在接触角滞后方面有很大的变化，这提供了旋钮来控制气液界面的形状并阻止界面，这是推进这些系统的关键。前进和后退的接触角，这是钉住界面的关键，特别值得关注。利用可以快速溶解的薄片，这项研究计划旨在对直接从空气中捕获二氧化碳产生最广泛的影响。来自该研究项目的知识也可以应用于从烟道气排放中去除酸性气体，如硫化氢和二氧化硫。加拿大的石油和天然气、食品加工、化妆品和交通运输等行业将从这些技术进步中受益匪浅。这项研究计划还将培训几名HQP，使他们具备应对日益增长的气候紧急情况的技能。

Capturing and solubilizing gases from dilute gaseous mixtures is a pressing technological need. As increasing greenhouse gas concentrations magnify the severity of extreme weather events such as floods, direct air capture is becoming increasingly important. Traditional methods for gas capture (gas scrubbers) are becoming obsolete given the energy requirements. New methods are urgently needed to accelerate gas-liquid mass transfer. This research program will study fundamental physico-chemical interactions at interfaces to accelerate retention and conversion of gases in aqueous systems. This novel approach will investigate triple solid-liquid-gas boundaries through the decimation of bulky gas volumes into thin gas sheets held stably between a microtextured solid and an absorbing aqueous solution like potassium hydroxide. By creating these thin, stable gas sheets over large areas, two interfaces will be created - gas-solid and gas-liquid interfaces that can be systematically studied for enhancing mass transfer. These thin sheets require a combination of advances in materials (solids with manipulatable advancing and receding contact angles) as well as advances in interfacial texture engineering (micro and nano textures that can hold stable gas films over areas exceeding 5 cm2). Like a paper towel hastening the evaporation of water, gas mass transfer will be significantly enhanced by using thin sheets that have been precisely designed using a framework that incorporates timescales and length-scales of interfacial interactions. The embodiment of thin gas films, while good for scientific study, can be scaled up to continuous processing. A key property is "pinning" where the gas-liquid interface is arrested on the solid. Zooming in to the micron length scales, the first question that will be answered is the stability of the layer as a function of surface microtexture parameters. In the surface chemistry regime (molecular length-scales), rare-earth ceramics will be studied. These have been shown to have large variations in contact angle hysteresis which offers knobs to control the shape of the gas-liquid interface and arrest the interface which is key to advance these systems. Advancing and receding contact angles, which hold key to pinning interfaces, are of particular interest. With thin sheets that can be rapidly solubilized, this research program aims to have the widest impact in direct capture of CO2 from air. Knowledge from this research program can also be applied to scrubbing sour gases such as H2S and SO2 from flue gas emissions. Canadian industries such as oil and gas, food processing, cosmetics, and transportation will strongly benefit from these technological advancements. This research program will also train several HQP with the skills to respond to the growing climate urgency.