Empirical Investigation of CO₂ Utilizing Room Temperature Ionic Liquids

Since the start of the industrial revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been on the rise. CO₂ detection has been made possible through a number of different techniques though they all suffer one way or the other from cross-sensitivity, narrow temperature operation range, high temperature or power operation, or limited lifetimes due to exposure to CO₂. Room temperature ionic liquids are a purely ionic solution consisting of tunable inorganic anions and organic cations. Salt like in nature with below room temperature melting points, these novel materials express tunable physical and chemical properties that can be selected to make them highly sensitive to CO₂. Through the selection of different fluorinated anions, this work shows the empirical development of a CO₂ gas sensor as part of a SRC sponsored research project from initial evaluation of some of the RTILs physical properties, electrode design evaluation, through to the examination of down selected RTILs on gold interdigitated electrodes at different humidity and temperature conditions. EMIM[TF2N] is shown as the front runner as the future RTIL for integration into a prototype CO₂ gas sensing system.