Preparation and characterization of nanocellulose-based carbon dioxide adsorbing aerogels

CO2 adsorption is considered as a promising strategy to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and stop global warming. The goal of this project is to prepare a cellulose-based CO2 adsorbent with a good mass transfer. Monolithic adsorbent based on cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) was fabricated via freeze-casting. 0.1g or 0.5g cellulose acetate (CA) or 0.1g acetylated CNC (aCNC) was dipped into the crosslinked aerogel to increase its CO2 capacity. Acetylation of CNC was confirmed by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and the degree of substitution was determined to be 1.6 through titration. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that monolithic structure was formed through freeze-casting and the structure was maintained after dipping. Compression test suggested that the mechanical properties of the aerogel increased with the increasing amount of dipped CA, while the CO2 capacity of the adsorbent decreased. Furthermore, the outstanding reinforcing effect of aCNC was noticed in the compression test, and the aerogel dipped with aCNC has the highest CO2 capacity with a value of 1.49 mmol/g