CO(2) Absorption Mechanism by the Deep Eutectic Solvents Formed by Monoethanolamine-Based Protic Ionic Liquid and Ethylene Glycol

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been widely used to capture CO(2) in recent years. Understanding CO(2) mechanisms by DESs is crucial to the design of efficient DESs for carbon capture. In this work, we studied the CO(2) absorption mechanism by DESs based on ethylene glycol (EG) and protic ionic liquid ([MEAH][Im]), formed by monoethanolamine (MEA) with imidazole (Im). The interactions between CO(2) and DESs [MEAH][Im]-EG (1:3) are investigated thoroughly by applying (1)H and (13) C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 2-D NMR, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. Surprisingly, the results indicate that CO(2) not only binds to the amine group of MEA but also reacts with the deprotonated EG, yielding carbamate and carbonate species, respectively. The reaction mechanism between CO(2) and DESs is proposed, which includes two pathways. One pathway is the deprotonation of the [MEAH](+) cation by the [Im](−) anion, resulting in the formation of neutral molecule MEA, which then reacts with CO(2) to form a carbamate species. In the other pathway, EG is deprotonated by the [Im](−), and then the deprotonated EG, HO-CH(2)-CH(2)-O(−), binds with CO(2) to form a carbonate species. The absorption mechanism found by this work is different from those of other DESs formed by protic ionic liquids and EG, and we believe the new insights into the interactions between CO(2) and DESs will be beneficial to the design and applications of DESs for carbon capture in the future.