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Abstract Carbon dioxide capture technologies are set to play a vital role in mitigating the current climate crisis. Solid‐state¹⁷O NMR spectroscopy can provide key mechanistic insights that are crucial to effective sorbent development. In this work, we present the fundamental aspects and complexities for the study of hydroxide‐based CO₂capture systems by¹⁷O NMR. We perform static density functional theory (DFT) NMR calculations to assign peaks for general hydroxide CO₂capture products, finding that¹⁷O NMR can readily distinguish bicarbonate, carbonate and water species. However, in application to CO₂binding in two test case hydroxide‐functionalised metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) – MFU‐4l and KHCO₃‐cyclodextrin‐MOF, we find that a dynamic treatment is necessary to obtain agreement between computational and experimental spectra. We therefore introduce a workflow that leverages machine‐learning force fields to capture dynamics across multiple chemical exchange regimes, providing a significant improvement on static DFT predictions. In MFU‐4l, we parameterise a two‐component dynamic motion of the bicarbonate motif involving a rapid carbonyl seesaw motion and intermediate hydroxyl proton hopping. For KHCO₃‐CD‐MOF, we combined experimental and modelling approaches to propose a new mixed carbonate‐bicarbonate binding mechanism and thus, we open new avenues for the study and modelling of hydroxide‐based CO₂capture materials by¹⁷O NMR. 

Abstract Carbon capture and utilization or sequestration and direct air capture will be needed to reduce atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases over the next century. Current amine‐based technologies bind CO₂with high selectivities but suffer from poor oxidative and thermal stabilities. Herein, we discuss understudied sorbents based on oxygen nucleophiles, including metal oxides and hydroxides, hydroxide‐containing polymers, and hydroxide‐based metal–organic frameworks. In general, these materials display improved oxidative stabilities compared to traditional amine‐based sorbents. We outline the challenges and opportunities offered by these alternative sorbents for carbon capture applications.