Selective Dinitrogen Capture from Coalbed Methane Using 2D Porphyrin-based Sheet with 3d Transition Metal Ion Sites: A First-principles Computational Study
摘要
Selective dinitrogen (N2) capture from coalbed methane (CBM) is significant in chemical industries, but it remains a challenge because of similar physicochemical properties of N2 and CH4. Herein, the adsorption of them on the 2D porphyrin sheets doped with various 3d transition metal ions (marked as MPor, M=Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) were comparatively investigated by using density functional theory to screen a suitable adsorbent for CBM separation. Though systematical comparison of adsorption energies of gas molecules and Gibbs free energy change the N2 desorption process on all MPor surfaces, FePor is confirmed to be a promising adsorbent because of its undemanding regeneration conditions and modest chemical bonding state with N2 molecule. Further mechanism analysis reveals that the charge transferred from lone pair of N2 molecule to dz2 orbital of Fe ion and back-donated from dxz and dyz orbitals of Fe ion to the unoccupied π* orbital of N2 molecule. Such hybridization of orbitals improves the selective adsorption of N2 from CBM.