The urgency of implementing effective Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies is currently constrained by sorbent limitations in capacity, kinetics, and energy requirements for regeneration, particularly within moisture-swing adsorption (MSA) systems. This report details a novel electrospun quaternized polysulfone (QP-es) sorbent, strategically fabricated from industrial polysulfone waste, thereby integrating circular-economy valorization with exceptional capture performance. While, the dense counterpart in characterized by a dense structure with minimum active surface area (28.5 m2 g-1), the QP-es material is characterized by a multi-scale porous architecture that significantly enhances mass transport. It exhibits a high BET surface area of 587 m2 g-1, marking a twenty-fold increase over its dense cast analogue, QP-d. This architectural advantage yields rapid CO2 uptake, reaching 1.68 mmol g-1 in 10 to 15 min under 400 ppm CO2 conditions, compared to the slow performance of QP-d, which achieves only 0.63 mmol g-1 in 40 to 50 min. The optimal peak capacity for QP-es is 2.16 mmol g-1 at 20 % relative humidity (RH), exceeding the peak capacity of QP-d (0.8 mmol g-1) by 2.7x. Furthermore, QP-es demonstrates robust operational viability through high selectivity for CO2 over atmospheric bulk gases (CH4, H2, N2, O2) and acidic contaminants (NO2, and SO2). Under MSA, the material maintains a substantial working capacity of approximately 1.6 mmol g-1 (swinging between 20 % RH and 100 % RH) and retains 85 % of its original capacity over 140 cycles. The sorbent also regenerates efficiently using temperature-swing adsorption (TSA) at a remarkably low temperature of just 50 degrees C, thus leading to an overall regeneration energy of similar to 1.98 MJ kg-1. These findings demonstrate that utilizing electrospinning to engineer multi-scale porosity successfully overcomes internal mass-transfer limitations, offering a scalable, energy-efficient, and durable DAC sorbent optimized for cost-effective moisture-swing operation.
Electrospun quaternized polysulfone from industrial waste: A multi-scale porous architecture for ultra-high performance moisture-swing direct air capture
Nicotera I.;Simari C.
2026-01-01
Abstract
The urgency of implementing effective Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies is currently constrained by sorbent limitations in capacity, kinetics, and energy requirements for regeneration, particularly within moisture-swing adsorption (MSA) systems. This report details a novel electrospun quaternized polysulfone (QP-es) sorbent, strategically fabricated from industrial polysulfone waste, thereby integrating circular-economy valorization with exceptional capture performance. While, the dense counterpart in characterized by a dense structure with minimum active surface area (28.5 m2 g-1), the QP-es material is characterized by a multi-scale porous architecture that significantly enhances mass transport. It exhibits a high BET surface area of 587 m2 g-1, marking a twenty-fold increase over its dense cast analogue, QP-d. This architectural advantage yields rapid CO2 uptake, reaching 1.68 mmol g-1 in 10 to 15 min under 400 ppm CO2 conditions, compared to the slow performance of QP-d, which achieves only 0.63 mmol g-1 in 40 to 50 min. The optimal peak capacity for QP-es is 2.16 mmol g-1 at 20 % relative humidity (RH), exceeding the peak capacity of QP-d (0.8 mmol g-1) by 2.7x. Furthermore, QP-es demonstrates robust operational viability through high selectivity for CO2 over atmospheric bulk gases (CH4, H2, N2, O2) and acidic contaminants (NO2, and SO2). Under MSA, the material maintains a substantial working capacity of approximately 1.6 mmol g-1 (swinging between 20 % RH and 100 % RH) and retains 85 % of its original capacity over 140 cycles. The sorbent also regenerates efficiently using temperature-swing adsorption (TSA) at a remarkably low temperature of just 50 degrees C, thus leading to an overall regeneration energy of similar to 1.98 MJ kg-1. These findings demonstrate that utilizing electrospinning to engineer multi-scale porosity successfully overcomes internal mass-transfer limitations, offering a scalable, energy-efficient, and durable DAC sorbent optimized for cost-effective moisture-swing operation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
