| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| In Situ Spectroscopy and Microscopy Focus Topic | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session IS+AS+SS-TuM |
| Session: | In Situ Studies of Organic and Soft Materials and Liquid-Solid Interfaces |
| Presenter: | Tanza Lewis, University of California, Irvine |
| Authors: | T. Lewis, University of California, Irvine B. Winter, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Germany M. Faubel, Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Germany J.C. Hemminger, University of California, Irvine |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions are commonly used to capture CO2 emitted into the atmosphere from industrial processes. It is likely that interactions between MEA and CO2 at the aqueous solution surface are important to this process, yet surprisingly very few studies have explicitly addressed the role of the solution-gas interface. In the present study, interfacial chemistry of CO2 capture is studied by surface sensitive photoelectron spectroscopy measurements from a liquid microjet of CO2-reacted MEA solutions with carbon loadings of 0.1 to 0.9 mol/mol. These experiments determine the spatial distribution of MEA and reaction products into the solution as a function of CO2 loading. Results show that neutral MEA exhibits a propensity for the solution surface, whereas protonated MEA and reaction products prefer bulk solvation, suggesting enhanced reactivity at the solution interface, especially at high CO2 loading. These observations indicate that a detailed understanding of the chemistry of CO2 at the liquid/vapor interface and interface to bulk transport of the products will be important in understanding CO2 capture.