Nanoporous molecular basket sorbent for NO2 and SO2 capture based on a polyethylene glycol-loaded mesoporous molecular sieve

A novel type of nanoporous molecular basket sorbent (MBS) has been designed for NO2 and SO2 capture and separation from gas streams at room temperature based on polyethylene glycol (PEG)loaded mesoporous molecular sieve SBA-15. The MBS material prepared, PEG(50)/SBA-15, is a nanoporous composite of 50 wt% PEG and SBA-15. The sorption capacity and selectivity of PEG(50)/SBA-15 have been evaluated for NO2 and SO2 removal from the simulated gas streams in a fixed-bed flow sorption system at room temperature under atmospheric pressure. It was found that the PEG(50)/SBA-15 sorbent is capable of efficiently removing > 99.6% of NO2 and SO2 in gas mixtures, i.e., from 2000 to below 5 ppmv NO2 in N-2 and from 500 to below 2 ppmv SO2 in N-2, respectively, at ambient conditions with high capacity and selectivity. In addition, the spent sorbent can be regenerated easily and completely by heating to 100 degrees C. With this new approach, the present study may open a new window for developing high-performance sorbents for SO2 and NO2 removal from various gas streams.