Addition of Imidazolium‐Based Ionic Liquid to Improve Methanol Production in Polyamine‐Assisted CO<sub>2</sub> Capture and Conversion Systems Using Pincer Catalysts
Christopher J. Koch, Alain Goeppert, G. K. Surya Prakash
Abstract
Abstract Ionic liquids have been studied as CO 2 capture agents. However, they are rarely used in combined CO 2 capture and conversion processes. Utilizing imidazolium‐based ionic liquids, the conversion of CO 2 to methanol was greatly improved in polyamine assisted systems catalyzed by homogeneous pincer catalysts with Ru and Mn metal centers. Among the ionic liquids tested, [BMIM]OAc was found to perform the best under the given reaction conditions. Among the polyamine tested, pentaethylenehexamine (PEHA) led to the highest conversion rates. Ru‐Macho and Ru‐Macho‐BH were the most active catalysts. Direct air capture utilizing PEHA as the capture material was also demonstrated and produced an 86 % conversion of the captured CO 2 to methanol in the presence of [BMIM]OAc.