Post-combustion CO2 capture via the hydrate formation at the gas-liquid-solid interface induced by the non-surfactant graphene oxide.

CO 2 capture is currently the most effective way to reduce global carbon emissions, which leads to the emergence of novel gas hydrate method. In this work, the significant role of graphene oxide (GO) in enhancing the dynamic behaviors of post-combustion CO 2 capture via the hydrate formation was investigated. Firstly, at the gas-liquid interface, the induction of GO increased the amount of gas transfer, and shortened the induction time for the hydrate nucleation at the heterogeneous nucleation sites provided by GO, which attracted CO 2 molecules assembling on the GO layer to participate in the hydrate nucleation based on the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. More importantly, the hydrate growth rate was nearly doubled in 0.05 wt% GO and 4 mol% tetrahydrofuran (THF) mixed accelerators than that in pure THF and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) mixed systems, which greatly boosted the gas storage capacity of CO 2 in the form of compact solid hydrates. Consequently, CO 2 separation efficiency achieved up to 76 % in the GO based accelerators, enhanced by 23.2 % compared to that in pure THF and the SDS mixed systems. The present study could provide insights into the development of new type of nanomaterial accelerators for CO 2 capture via the gas hydrate method. [Display omitted] • GO promoted the interfacial gas transfer and shortened the induction time for the hydrate nucleation. • The hydrate growth rate and gas storage capacity of CO 2 were greatly boosted by GO based accelerators. • The enhanced kinetic behavior resulted in the superior CO 2 separation efficiency of 76% for the flue gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]