Amino Acid-Driven One-Step Process to Transform CO2 into Barium Carbonate Nanoparticles

Controlling carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is critical since CO2 is the primary contributor to global warming, posing significant threats to human survival and leading to unwanted changes in biological systems. Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) has been studied worldwide, but methods that are effective, efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly are lacking. In this study, we developed a unique method to achieve CO2 capture and conversion in a single step. The process of capturing and converting CO2 into value-added BaCO3 nanoparticles (nano-BaCO3) is detailed as an illustrative example. Nano-BaCO3, with an average size of 85 nm, was obtained without requiring external energy. The use of amino acid resulted in faster CO2 absorption and more uniform particle sizes compared to the same process without the use of amino acid. Moreover, the amino acid was recycled and reused without any additional treatment, and nano-BaCO3 production was observed in multiple cycles. In addition, our method has been proven to be applicable for CO2 conversion from simulated flue gases with various CO2 levels (e.g., 4% and 10%).