Metal chlorides-promoted ammonia absorption of deep eutectic solvent

Ammonia is considered as a promising hydrogen or energy carrier. Ammonia absorption or adsorption is an important aspect for both ammonia removal, storage and separation applications. To these ends, a wide range of solid and liquid sorbents have been investigated. Among these, the deep eutectic solvent (DES) is emerging as a promising class of ammonia absorbers. Herein, we report a novel type of DES, i.e., metal-containing DESs for ammonia absorption. Specifically, the NH3 absorption capacity is enhanced by ca. 18.1–36.9% when a small amount of metal chlorides, such as MgCl2, MnCl2 etc., are added into a DES composed of resorcinol (Res) and ethylene glycol (EG). To our knowledge, the MgCl2/Res/EG (0.1:1:2) DES outperforms most of the reported DESs. The excellent NH3 absorption performances of metal–containing DESs have been attributed to the synergy of Lewis acid–base and hydrogen bonding interactions. Additionally, good reversibility and high NH3/CO2 selectivity are achieved over the MgCl2/Res/EG (0.1:1:2) DES, which enables it to be a potential NH3 absorber for further investigations.