Nanoconfinement Ionic Liquid Membranes for Efficient Flow Catalytic CO2 Cycloaddition

Developing a novel nanocomposite membrane with reaction and separation integrated into one unit to catalyze CO2 cycloaddition is an alternative but challenging solution for mitigating current CO2 excess emissions. In this context, a series of supported ionic liquid membranes were prepared on modified alumina supports with intrinsic nanopores by thermally induced phase transition method, and ILs infiltrate the nanochannels and wet the top layer where liquid crystals grow into highly distributed thin layers of catalytic sites. Additionally, the morphology, thickness, and ingredient of the membrane layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and a membrane reactor with the concept of forced flow-through was constructed to catalyze the CO2 and PO reactions. Under the optimized conditions, the PO conversion rate was stable at about 82.75%, and the maximum STY could reach 38.28 mmol PC·g·cat–1·h–1 using the [HDBU] Cl membrane.