The reaction of amines with CO2 is relevant not only to synthetic chemistry but also to technological applications, considered that amines, mostly monoethanolamine-MEA, but also di- and poly-amines, are used for CO2 capture from flue gases.
Silyl mono- and di-amines bind CO2 in different modes, namely intermolecular (mono-amines) or intramolecular (di-amines). Such a difference reflects on the higher capacity of silyl di-amines to take up CO2 when the amines are used in xerogel form, which exhibits a good resistance and reusability. It also has a quite interesting specific absorption of CO2 per gram of solid sorbent that makes the xerogel an interesting agent for CO2 capture.