Molecule‐level Design to Form Pocket Structures for Improving Amine Efficiency in CO2 Capture

Abstract Solid amine adsorbents represent a promising class of CO 2 sorbents, but their amine efficiency is limited by the inaccessibility of peripheral amines. The surface of mesocellular silica foam (MCF) is functionalized with the mixture of short‐chain 3‐Glycidyloxypropyl) triethoxysilane (GPTES) and long‐chain Octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS), forming pocket structures on the support surface, thereby exposing more amine sites and enhancing the amine efficiency of polyethylenimine (PEI). The resulting adsorbent demonstrates a high CO 2 adsorption capacity (5.02 mmol g −1 at 50 °C, 10 vol.% CO 2 , and 50%RH), high amine efficiency (0.43 at the dry condition), outstanding cyclic stability (0.5% performance decline per cycle under the conditions of dry CO 2 regeneration), and fast adsorption kinetics (15 min for adsorption saturation at 50 °C). First‐principles calculations and CO 2 temperature‐programmed desorption (TPD) experiments demonstrate that the introduction of GPTES and OTMS is beneficial to decreasing adsorption energy and forming paired carbamic acid states and ammonium carbamate states.