CO2 Separation and Utilisation

CO₂ is a waste product produced by many different industrial processes and which is accumulating in the atmosphere resulting in climate change. To mitigate this, the CO₂ must first be captured, then either stored or utilised to make chemicals for which there is significant demand.

This seminar will start by discussing our recent work on the use of mesoporous carbons to capture CO₂ from simulated waste gas streams. It will be shown that the mesoporous materials can adsorb far more CO₂ than traditional microporous carbon and that they are highly selective for CO₂ over N₂.

The second part of the seminar will focus on the conversion of CO2 into cyclic carbonates by reaction with epoxides. Cyclic carbonates are a class of chemicals which have applications including polar aprotic solvents and electrolytes for lithium ion batteries. The focus will be on bimetallic aluminium(salen) complexes which we have reported over the last 10 years, including their use with both terminal and internal epoxides, mechanistic studies and their use in both batch and flow reactors including their compatibility with flue gas.

The seminar will also cover various other classes of catalyst for cyclic carbonate synthesis that we have been developing over the last two years.