CO₂-selective Absorption Using m-Xylylenediamine

Inagaki and Mukai et al. have reported the CO₂-selective capturing function of m-xylylenediamine (MXDA) from the air. According to their report, by putting MXDA on a petri dish and stored in the air, CO₂ in air is smoothly captured as a MXDA・CO₂ adduct (1) by reacting with an amino group of MXDA. The adduct 1 keeps capturing CO₂ without undergoing a moisture mediated hydrolysis because 1 has the hydrophobic phenyl group effectively preventing hydration. On the other hand, 1 generates dry CO₂ by heating and the formed CO₂ is directly applied to Grignard reactions since it is without moisture. In the technique of CO₂ capture and storage (= CCS), CCS generally absorbs CO₂ with water contamination, requiring higher heating conditions to generate CO₂ gas. Therefore, this technology is expected to be used for performing non-moisture capturing CCS.