Thermal Stability and Heat Capacity Characterization of 1 ,6-Bis(Trioctyiphosphonium-1-yi)Decane Chloride

Manmade carbon dioxide, (COz) emission to the atmosphere is expected to
increase in the next 100 years and this will seriously have a huge impact on the
environment in the future. Fossil fuel is one of the most important sources of energy
in the world today. This includes petroleum, coal and natural gas. In the oil and gas
industry, natural gas exists in two forms, which are sweet gas (lowly contaminated)
and sour gas (highly contaminated), usually by COz and HzS. To make use of this
sour gas which is available in abundance, separation processes are required to first
purify them. Currently used absorbents for COz absorption such as amines have
been found to be effective in the removal of COz; however they have notable flaws
i.e high energy requirement for reactivation, corrosion due to formation of acid, and
amine degradation and loss. On the other hand, ionic liquid, (IL) is another potential
absorbent for separation of COz from natural gas stream and flue gas stream. ILs are
in liquid state under atmospheric conditions at room temperature with specific
properties that make them extremely effective as COz absorbents. The unique
properties of IL can possibly counter the flaws of amine absorption for this purpose.
Dicationic ionic liquid (DCIL) is a newer type of ionic liquid which possess higher
thermal stabilities and non-volatility. This new IL is needed to be characterized in
term of heat capacity and thermal stability since the data is not much publicly
reported for researchers to consult. Characterization on these thermophysical
properties will be done on dicationic phosphonium-based symmetrical ionic liquid
that is 1,6-bis(trioctylphosphonium-1-yl)decane chloride through lab experiments
by using equipment such as Bomb Calorimeter and Fourier Transform Infrared
(FTIR) Spectroscopy. Additional experiment is done to evaluate performance of
C02 solubility in the DCIL sample at room temperature and ambient pressure using
COz absorption system.