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upstart writes:

Two-dimensional ionic liquids to effectively capture carbon dioxide:

In the context of global concerns about climate change and greenhouse gas control, a new technology for CO2 capture, utilization, and storage has attracted broad attention.

Ionic liquids, composed of only cations and anions, are considered a new type of CO2 adsorbent due to their ultralow vapor pressure and environmentally friendly features.

[...] The researchers found that ionic liquids can form a two-dimensional-monolayer, ordered, checkerboard structure when supported by a metal surface. The two-dimensional ionic liquids exhibited anomalous stepwise melting processes, involving localized-rotated, out-of-plane-flipped, and fully disordered states, rather than the single melting point for the bulk ionic liquids.

"Anions and cations are arranged together in a checkerboard manner, thus forming a two-dimensional, ordered Z-bond network. This makes it more likely for the multi-step melting behaviors such as ionic rotation and flip," said Prof. He.

The massive molecular dynamics simulation indicates that the two-dimensional ionic liquids show excellent performance for CO2 capture due to the unsaturated and exposed Z-bonds. The mole fraction of CO2 adsorbed by two-dimensional [Mmim] PF6 was improved by at least one order of magnitude compared with the corresponding bulk ionic liquids.

[...] This two-dimensional editing technique for ionic liquids is expected to provide a new method for the precise control and functional design of liquids, which is promising for various chemical engineering applications involving solvents, electrolytes, and liquid catalysts.

Question for our resident chemistry experts: can you make consumer devices that contain 2-D liquid surfaces?

Journal Reference:
Hongyan He, Two dimensional ionic liquids with anomalous stepwise melting process and ultrahigh CO2 adsorption capacity, Cell Reports Physical Science (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100979

Original Submission