Abstract:

Ionic liquids（ILs）have attracted increasing interests for SO₂ capture due to their unique physico-chemical properties. In this paper the characteristics and advantages of ILs over traditional absorbents are introduced. The recent progress of ionic liquids for SO₂ removal，including the solubility of SO₂ in guanidinium-based，imidazolium-based，amines-based and other kinds of ionic liquids，the advantages and disadvantages of these ILs as well as the absorption mechanisms are reviewed. There are three kinds of absorption mechanisms，including physical absorption，chemical absorption or both，which depend on the kind of ILs. Molecular dynamics simulation and others kinds of computational methods have become an important means to provide valuable insights into the structure–property quantitative relationship. Other issues such as ionic liquids for SO₂ separation at a high temperature and the absorption mechanism have to be further investigated.