(519b) Development of Ceramic Metal Oxide Membranes By Means of Reactive Electrospinning

Drastic climate change within the last decade has brought attention to the underlying relationship between global warming and the emission of greenhouse gases at the global scale. To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other malignant gases in the atmosphere, Carbon Capture and Storage (CSC) technology has been developed and implemented widely. In efforts to contribute to this avenue of sustainable progress, we aimed to produce ceramic metal oxide membranes via reactive electrospinning with the purpose of applying these novel fibrous membranes to greenhouse gas capture.  The membrane formation began with an unhydrolyzed sol-gel solution consisting of 4MDa polyethylene oxide, acetic acid and magnesium methoxide solution dissolved in a methanol dichloromethane solvent. The sol-gel process involved the partial hydrolysis of the alkoxide to form a reactive monomer, followed by the condensation of the monomers to form colloid structures (i.e. sol formation). Rather than allow for further hydrolysis leading to polymerization of the colloids (i.e. gel formation), however, electrospinning followed. During electrospinning, a voltage of 10-20 kV was applied to the solution as it dispensed from a flow-controlled needle housed in a humidity-controlled chamber. The difference of charge between the charged solution and grounded plate, onto which the needle emptied, resulted in the formation of a Taylor cone from which a jet of the solution was ejected.  Experimental data was collected for varying flow rates, supplied voltage, solvent composition, substrate concentration and chamber humidity. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images were obtained for additional fiber diameter measurement. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy followed for further analysis of product chemical composition.