New chemistry for enhanced carbon capture: beyond ammonium carbamates

Carbon capture and sequestration is necessary to tackle one of the biggest problems facing society: global climate change resulting from anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Despite this pressing need, we still rely on century-old technology—aqueous amine scrubbers—to selectively remove CO₂ from emission streams. Amine scrubbers are effective due to their exquisite chemoselectivity towards CO₂ to form ammonium carbamates and (bi)carbonates, but suffer from several unavoidable limitations. In this perspective, we highlight the need for CO₂ capture via new chemistry that goes beyond the traditional formation of ammonium carbamates. In particular, we demonstrate how ionic liquid and metal–organic framework sorbents can give rise to capture products that are not favourable for aqueous amines, including carbamic acids, carbamate–carbamic acid adducts, metal bicarbonates, alkyl carbonates, and carbonic acids. These new CO₂ binding modes may offer advantages including higher sorption capacities and lower regeneration energies, though additional research is needed to fully explore their utility for practical applications. Overall, we outline the unique challenges and opportunities involved in engineering new CO₂ capture chemistry into next-generation technologies.

New pathways for carbon capture and sequestration are needed to tackle the challenge of rising anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.