Carbon-dioxide capture by hydroquinone clathrates

Organic clathrates are cheap and ideal candidate materials for the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, owing to a large and particularly stable porous structure combined to a high selectivity toward this molecule. Recent results in the synthesis of guest-free beta-hydroquinone phase could pave the way to the development of this class of compounds in real applications. Nonetheless, a full understanding of the CO2 capture process is still pending. This proposal seeks to investigate, in-situ, the adsorption and desorption mechanism of this fascinating crystal upon variation of pressure and temperature. To this end, we would need SXD fitted with the CCR and gas-pressure cell to perform experiments on single-crystals of beta-hydroquinone. This results, in combination with other computational and scattering techniques, will give us full access to the structure and its deformation as the CO2 is captured by the clathrate.