Department
Chemistry
Major
Chemistry
Research Advisor
Sotiriou-Leventis, Lia
Advisor's Department
Chemistry
Funding Source
National Science Foundation
Abstract
Carbon aerogels are light, highly porous materials with high surface areas. Their applications have been demonstrated in a wide range of areas such as CO2 capture, gas separations, electrochemical cells, catalysis, etc. Carbon aerogels are typically made from pyrolysis of a variety of carbonizable polymeric aerogels, which in turn are synthesized via sol-gel methods. It has been argued that along with porosity and the surface structure, heteroatoms such as O and N play a decisive role on the properties of porous carbon materials, with nitrogen-containing functional groups in particular responsible for improving interaction with gases for gas adsorption applications. For these reasons, a previously-synthesized tetrahydroquinazoline (THQ) monomer was selected to be polymerized to form a PTHQ aerogel, which was then oxidized, carbonized, and etched to form a carbon aerogel. This transformation process has variable steps, which affect the characteristics of the derived aerogel. This carbon aerogel exhibits porosity favorable for high capacity of carbon dioxide, and for the selective adsorption of carbon dioxide versus other common gases, notably nitrogen and oxygen.
Biography
Samuel Hackett is a freshman majoring in Chemistry from O'Fallon, Missouri. Through the FYRE program, Samuel has taken his first steps into research by examining carbon aerogels. He is also a member of the Chem-E-Car design team. Samuel has enjoyed studying chemistry ever since high school. While he is not doing coursework or research, he can usually be found reading or playing video games.
Research Category
Sciences
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Document Type
Presentation
Award
Sciences – section 2 oral presentation, Second place
Location
Missouri Room
Presentation Date
14 Apr 2022, 1:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Carbon Aerogels for High Capacity Adsorption of CO2
Missouri Room
Carbon aerogels are light, highly porous materials with high surface areas. Their applications have been demonstrated in a wide range of areas such as CO2 capture, gas separations, electrochemical cells, catalysis, etc. Carbon aerogels are typically made from pyrolysis of a variety of carbonizable polymeric aerogels, which in turn are synthesized via sol-gel methods. It has been argued that along with porosity and the surface structure, heteroatoms such as O and N play a decisive role on the properties of porous carbon materials, with nitrogen-containing functional groups in particular responsible for improving interaction with gases for gas adsorption applications. For these reasons, a previously-synthesized tetrahydroquinazoline (THQ) monomer was selected to be polymerized to form a PTHQ aerogel, which was then oxidized, carbonized, and etched to form a carbon aerogel. This transformation process has variable steps, which affect the characteristics of the derived aerogel. This carbon aerogel exhibits porosity favorable for high capacity of carbon dioxide, and for the selective adsorption of carbon dioxide versus other common gases, notably nitrogen and oxygen.
