Architecting Porosity Through Monomer Engineering: Hypercrosslinked Polymers for Highly Selective CO₂ Capture from...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Environmental Chemistry
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions exacerbate global warming, necessitating effective mitigation strategies.
• Natural gas purification and flue gas treatment are critical for environmental protection.
• Hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) are emerging as cost-effective and scalable adsorbents for gas separation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize novel HCPs (TPB-Ben, TPB-Nap, TPB-Ant) using a solvent knitting strategy.
• To investigate the impact of monomer size, specifically phenyl ring quantity, on gas adsorption and separation.
• To evaluate the performance of these HCPs for CO2 capture and natural gas purification.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of TPB-Ben, TPB-Nap, and TPB-Ant via solvent knitting.
• Modification of monomer size to alter phenyl ring quantity.
• Testing of CO2 adsorption and separation from CO2/CH4 and CO2/N2 mixtures.

Main Results:

• All synthesized HCPs demonstrated high selective separation of CO2 from CO2/CH4 and CO2/N2 mixtures.
• TPB-Ben-3-2, TPB-Nap-3-2, and TPB-Ant-3-2 exhibited significant CO2/CH4 (selectivity up to 10.77) and CO2/N2 (selectivity up to 62.89) separation capabilities.
• The polymers showed efficient gas adsorption under mild reaction conditions.

Conclusions:

• The synthesized HCPs are promising candidates for natural gas purification and CO2 capture.
• The solvent knitting strategy and monomer size modification are effective for developing selective solid adsorbents.
• These polymers offer a low-cost, scalable, and efficient solution for CO2 mitigation.