Porous copper-based Nano-reactors for in situ conversion of dilute carbon dioxide

Conventional carbon dioxide (CO₂) valorization requires concentrated streams, but most sources are dilute, necessitating energy-intensive and costly capture steps. Here, we report a direct strategy for utilizing dilute CO₂ by employing a copper-based porous nano-reactors (Cu@POP-IS), which integrates the capture and activation steps. These reactors possesse an average pore size of 1.3 nm and exhibits a CO₂ adsorption capacity of 55.77 cm³/g at 273 K. More importantly, the functional sites within its framework enable the simultaneous catalytic conversion of dilute CO₂ stream (8-35 vol%) in actual waste gases and regeneration of the nano-reactors, achieving an oxazolidinone yield of 61-99%. This result demonstrates the dual functionality of the nano-reactors (capturing and activating CO₂) and underscores the integrated energy and economic advantages of our approach. Furthermore, we reveal that CO₂ reactivity is modulated by its interactions with specific active sites. This finding provides a general principle for the rational design of functionalized nano-reactors to advance the resource-oriented utilization of CO₂.