A first-principles density functional theory study of the electronic structural and thermodynamic properties of M2ZrO3 and M2CO3 (M=Na, K) and their capabilities for CO2 capture

Alkali metal zirconates could be used as solid sorbents for CO{sub 2} capture. The structural, electronic, and phonon properties of Na{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3}, K{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3}, Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, and K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} are investigated by combining the density functional theory with lattice phonon dynamics. The thermodynamics of CO{sub 2} absorption/desorption reactions of these two zirconates are analyzed. The calculated results show that their optimized structures are in a good agreement with experimental measurements. The calculated band gaps are 4.339 eV (indirect), 3.641 eV (direct), 3.935 eV (indirect), and 3.697 eV (direct) for Na{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3}, K{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3}, Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, and K{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, respectively.The calculated phonon dispersions and phonon density of states for M{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} and M{sub 2}CO{sub 3} (M = K, Na, Li) revealed that from K to Na to Li, their frequency peaks are shifted to high frequencies due to the molecular weight decreased from K to Li. From the calculated reaction heats and relationships of free energy change versus temperatures and CO{sub 2} pressures of the M{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} (M = K, Na, Li) reacting with CO{sub 2}, we found that the performance of Na{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} capturing CO{sub 2} is similar to that of Li{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} and is better than that of K{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3}. Therefore, Na{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} and Li{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} are good candidates of high temperature CO{sub 2} sorbents and could be used for post combustion CO{sub 2} capture technologies

Theoretical calculating the thermodynamic properties of solid sorbents for CO{sub 2} capture applications

Since current technologies for capturing CO{sub 2} to fight global climate change are still too energy intensive, there is a critical need for development of new materials that can capture CO{sub 2} reversibly with acceptable energy costs. Accordingly, solid sorbents have been proposed to be used for CO{sub 2} capture applications through a reversible chemical transformation. By combining thermodynamic database mining with first principles density functional theory and phonon lattice dynamics calculations, a theoretical screening methodology to identify the most promising CO{sub 2} sorbent candidates from the vast array of possible solid materials has been proposed and validated. The calculated thermodynamic properties of different classes of solid materials versus temperature and pressure changes were further used to evaluate the equilibrium properties for the CO{sub 2} adsorption/desorption cycles. According to the requirements imposed by the pre- and post- combustion technologies and based on our calculated thermodynamic properties for the CO{sub 2} capture reactions by the solids of interest, we were able to screen only those solid materials for which lower capture energy costs are expected at the desired pressure and temperature conditions. Only those selected CO{sub 2} sorbent candidates were further considered for experimental validations. The ab initio thermodynamic technique has the advantage of identifying thermodynamic properties of CO{sub 2} capture reactions without any experimental input beyond crystallographic structural information of the solid phases involved. Such methodology not only can be used to search for good candidates from existing database of solid materials, but also can provide some guidelines for synthesis new materials. In this presentation, we first introduce our screening methodology and the results on a testing set of solids with known thermodynamic properties to validate our methodology. Then, by applying our computational method to several different kinds of solid systems, we demonstrate that our methodology can predict the useful information to help developing CO{sub 2} capture Technologies

Density functional theory study of the structural, electronic, lattice dynamical, and thermodynamic properties of Li

The structural, electronic, lattice dynamical, optical, thermodynamic, and CO{sub 2} capture properties of monoclinic and triclinic phases of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} are investigated by combining density functional theory with phonon lattice dynamics calculations. We found that these two phases have some similarities in their bulk and thermodynamic properties. The calculated bulk modulus and the cohesive energies of these two phases are close to each other. Although both of them are insulators, the monoclinic phase of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} has a direct band gap of 5.24 eV while the triclinic Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} phase has an indirect band gap of 4.98 eV. In both phases of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4}, the s orbital of O mainly contributes to the lower-energy second valence band (VB{sub 2}) and the p orbitals contribute to the fist valence band (VB{sub 1}) and the conduction bands (CBs). The s orbital of Si mainly contributes to the lower portions of the VB1 and VB{sub 2}, and Si p orbitals mainly contribute to the higher portions of the VB{sub 1} and VB{sub 2}. The s and p orbitals of Li contribute to both VBs and to CBs, and Li p orbitals have a higher contribution than the Li s orbital. There is possibly a phonon soft mode existing in triclinic {gamma}-Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4}; in the monoclinic Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4}, there are three phonon soft modes, which correspond to the one type of Li disordered over a few sites. Their LO-TO splitting indicates that both phases of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} are polar anisotropic materials. The calculated infrared absorption spectra for LO and TO modes are different for these two phases of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4}. The calculated relationships of the chemical potential versus temperature and CO{sub 2} pressure for reaction of Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} with CO{sub 2} shows that Li{sub 4}SiO{sub 4} could be a good candidate for a high-temperature CO{sub 2} sorbent while used for postcombustion capture technology

Ab initio thermodynamic approach to identify mixed solid sorbents for CO2 capture technology

Because the current technologies for capturing CO2 are still too energy intensive, new materials must be developed that can capture CO2 reversibly with acceptable energy costs. At a given CO2 pressure, the turnover temperature (Tt) of the reaction of an individual solid that can capture CO2 is fixed. Such Tt may be outside the operating temperature range (ΔTo) for a practical capture technology. To adjust Tt to fit the practical ΔTo, in this study, three scenarios of mixing schemes are explored by combining thermodynamic database mining with first principles density functional theory and phonon lattice dynamics calculations. Our calculated results demonstrate that by mixing different types of solids, it’s possible to shift Tt to the range of practical operating temperature conditions. According to the requirements imposed by the pre- and post- combustion technologies and based on our calculated thermodynamic properties for the CO2 capture reactions by the mixed solids of interest, we were able to identify the mixing ratios of two or more solids to form new sorbent materials for which lower capture energy costs are expected at the desired pressure and temperature conditions

Theoretical calculating the thermodynamic properties of solid sorbents for CO{sub 2} capture applications

Since current technologies for capturing CO{sub 2} to fight global climate change are still too energy intensive, there is a critical need for development of new materials that can capture CO{sub 2} reversibly with acceptable energy costs. Accordingly, solid sorbents have been proposed to be used for CO{sub 2} capture applications through a reversible chemical transformation. By combining thermodynamic database mining with first principles density functional theory and phonon lattice dynamics calculations, a theoretical screening methodology to identify the most promising CO{sub 2} sorbent candidates from the vast array of possible solid materials has been proposed and validated. The calculated thermodynamic properties of different classes of solid materials versus temperature and pressure changes were further used to evaluate the equilibrium properties for the CO{sub 2} adsorption/desorption cycles. According to the requirements imposed by the pre- and post- combustion technologies and based on our calculated thermodynamic properties for the CO{sub 2} capture reactions by the solids of interest, we were able to screen only those solid materials for which lower capture energy costs are expected at the desired pressure and temperature conditions. Only those selected CO{sub 2} sorbent candidates were further considered for experimental validations. The ab initio thermodynamic technique has the advantage of identifying thermodynamic properties of CO{sub 2} capture reactions without any experimental input beyond crystallographic structural information of the solid phases involved. Such methodology not only can be used to search for good candidates from existing database of solid materials, but also can provide some guidelines for synthesis new materials. In this presentation, we first introduce our screening methodology and the results on a testing set of solids with known thermodynamic properties to validate our methodology. Then, by applying our computational method to several different kinds of solid systems, we demonstrate that our methodology can predict the useful information to help developing CO{sub 2} capture Technologies