One of the most promising methods for carbon capture and separation utilizes porous solid sorbents. In this context, sorbents with high performance, adequate stability, and low cost are highly demanded. We have been dedicated to investigating various porous materials, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), and porous polymer networks (PPNs), for CO2 capture and separation (Fig. 1). Moreover, we are also interested in the study of the adsorption mechanism by probing the fundamental interactions that occur between gas molecules and their host framework. Apart from the excellent adsorption and separation performance, low cost that enables large scale synthesis is another crucial factor for practical applications. As such, PPN materials with amorphous but porous structures can satisfy these requirements easily. By taking advantage of the stable organic backbones, we can readily and economically incorporate tailored functionalities through covalently/noncovalently decorating with alkylamine/sulfonate functional groups while keeping synthetic and operational costs below that of other sorbents. One of our PPN materials, PPN-151-DETA, became a potential candidate with high CO2 loading efficiency (18.75 ± 2.24 wt%) and low regenerative energy (82.8 kJ/mol CO2). Additionally, PPN-151-DETA can be synthesized in kilogram scale with low cost. The chemisorption mechanism has been confirmed by solid-state NMR. With the aim of improving stability of amine loaded PPN materials, the study using a substoichiometric strategy to synthesize new PPNs utilizing low-cost starting materials for CO2 capture and separation is also undergoing in our lab. By taking advantage of the residue reactive sites, these PPNs became excellent scaffolds to directly tether alkylamines. The physically and chemically robust organic backbones also allow for these porous-organic-polymer materials to be utilized under conditions that would be disadvantageous for other sorbents.

Engineering solid sorbents for CO2 capture and separation

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