Polymeric Gels for Carbon Dioxide Capture

The urgent need to scale carbon capture technologies to gigaton levels has intensified the search for sorbent materials combining high CO₂ capacity, selectivity, and stability with low regeneration energy and practical processability. Recent advances in polymer science and materials engineering have enabled the rational synthesis of polymeric gels with precisely controlled backbones, functional groups, morphologies, and additives. Unlike conventional porous solids or liquid amine sorbents, polymeric gels are soft, adaptive three-dimensional networks that offer high surface area, tunable polymer-CO₂-H₂O interactions, and structural versatility across multiple length scales, presenting an emerging class of materials for CO₂ capture. In this review, we summarize the latest progress in molecular design of polymeric networks, nano-to microscale morphological control and macroscale device integration with sorption columns, separation membranes, and renewable energy-driven regeneration systems. We highlight the versatile tunability of polymeric gels for durable, energy-efficient CO₂ capture and discuss the remaining challenges and future opportunities to transform these current findings into practical carbon mitigation technologies.