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  • Designed amyloid fibers as materials for selective carbon dioxide capture.

Designed amyloid fibers as materials for selective carbon dioxide capture.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2013-12-25)
Dan Li, Hiroyasu Furukawa, Hexiang Deng, Cong Liu, Omar M Yaghi, David S Eisenberg
ABSTRACT

New materials capable of binding carbon dioxide are essential for addressing climate change. Here, we demonstrate that amyloids, self-assembling protein fibers, are effective for selective carbon dioxide capture. Solid-state NMR proves that amyloid fibers containing alkylamine groups reversibly bind carbon dioxide via carbamate formation. Thermodynamic and kinetic capture-and-release tests show the carbamate formation rate is fast enough to capture carbon dioxide by dynamic separation, undiminished by the presence of water, in both a natural amyloid and designed amyloids having increased carbon dioxide capacity. Heating to 100 °C regenerates the material. These results demonstrate the potential of amyloid fibers for environmental carbon dioxide capture.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Carbon-12C dioxide, 99.9 atom % 12C
Sigma-Aldrich
Carbon-12C dioxide, 99.99 atom % 12C
Sigma-Aldrich
Carbon dioxide, ≥99.8%