Recent progress on advanced solid adsorbents for CO2 capture: From mechanism to machine learning

Environmental pollution has become a serious issue due to the rapid development of urbanization, industrialization, and vehicle traffic. Notably, fossil fuel combustion significantly contributes to rising atmospheric CO₂ levels. To address this problem, various carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies have been developed, aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions and mitigate their impact on climate change. Absorption using aqueous amines has long been recognized as a method for removing diluted CO₂ from gas streams, but it comes with drawbacks such as high energy intensity and corrosion issues. The use of solid adsorbents, however, is now being seriously considered as a potential alternative, offering a possibly less energy-intensive separation method. The primary focus of this study is to outline the recent development of advanced solid adsorbents, including zeolites, carbon-based materials, MOFs, COFs, boron nitride, magnetic nanoparticles, and mesoporous silica, along with their CO₂ uptake behavior. In CO₂ capture procedures, selecting the appropriate adsorbent is crucial, yet it's not a straightforward task to determine the most promising sorbent beforehand due to various factors affecting performance and economy. In recent years, machine learning (ML) algorithms, particularly artificial neural networks (ANN) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) have emerged as valuable tools for predicting physical properties, expediting the selection of optimal adsorbents for CO₂ capture, optimizing synthesis conditions of adsorbents, and understanding advantageous variables for gas-solid interaction. The secondary objective of this review is to establish a correlation between recent advancements and potential future breakthroughs in the domain of machine learning-assisted CO₂ adsorbents. In summary, this review aims to provide a comprehensive guideline for selecting tailored solid adsorbent materials according to recently reported research to achieve high-performance CO₂ capture. By exploring various materials, their properties, and the mechanisms that influence their effectiveness, this review intends to facilitate informed decisions and innovative solutions for CO₂ adsorbents.