Effect of physicochemical properties of ammonium-based ionic liquids on CO2 capturing: An insight into structure-activity relationship

The physicochemical properties including density, viscosity and refractive index of five ionic liquids (ILs) consisting of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonate [AMPS] as anion source with ammonium-based cations (tetrabutylammonium [TBA], tetrapropylammonium [TPA] and tetraethylammonium [TEA], tetramethylammonium [TMA] and (vinylbenzyl)trimethylammonium [vbn]) were measured and influence of these properties upon CO2 sorption was investigated. The viscosity and density measurements were taken at atmospheric pressure within the temperature range of (293.15–363.15) K, whereas refractive indexes were determined within (288.15–333.15) K. An increase in the side-carbon chain length of ammonium-based cations resulted in decreased density with a corresponding increase in viscosity and refractive index. Among the studied ILs, [TBA][AMPS] gave the highest viscosity and least density over the whole range of temperature and a higher CO2 sorption of 0.51 mol fraction at 298.15 K and 1 MPa was observed showing dependency of CO2 solubility on the thermophysical properties of studied ILs. Moreover, among investigated ILs, molar volume of [TBA][AMPS] was found to be largest (433.3729 cm3mol-1), which resulted in the higher amount of CO2 sorption in comparison to other investigated ILs. Also, Henry's constant of 1.51 MPa was found for [TBA][AMPS] which was 10.9, 33.4, 44.3 and 24.8% less than [TPA][AMPS], [TEA][AMPS], [TMA][AMPS] and [vbn][AMPS], respectively. The current work offers an in depth study to understand structure-activity relation between physicochemical properties and CO2 solubility of investigated ILs and explores the ways for enhanced CO2 sorption. [Display omitted] •Five ammonium-based cations paired with AMPS anion were synthesized.•The physicochemical properties of said ILs were measured to address CO2 sorption.•[TBA][AMPS] showed increased CO2 sorption of 0.51 mol fraction at 1 MPa & 298.15 K.•AMPS-based ILs with higher molar volume (Vm) showed improved CO2 sorption.•This study provides improved CO2 sorption by cationic structural variations of ILs.