Construction of Aluminum‐Porphyrin‐Based Hypercrosslinked Ionic Polymers (HIPs) by Direct Knitting Approach for CO2 Capture and In‐Situ Conversion to Cyclic Carbonates

Abstract

AbstractHypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) constructed by Friedel‐Crafts reaction have drawn increasing attention in recent decades, but their multifunctionalization remains a huge challenge. Herein, a series of aluminum‐porphyrin‐based hypercrosslinked ionic polymers have been successfully synthesized by direct knitting approach without additional electrophilic comonomers, which involves the copolymerization of neutral porphyrin monomers and ionic building. By increasing the connected nodes numbers of ionic monomers, the introduction of abundant tetraphenylmethane fragements into the porphyrin backbones endows them with high‐density ionic active sites. Accordingly, the well‐matched molar ratios of aluminum sites to nucleophilic chloride anions that work synergistically for CO2/epoxide coupling can be achieved. Al‐HIP‐2 with flexible ionic pendants and a high Al/Cl ratio allows CO2 cycloaddition to be performed at ambient conditions or with diluted CO2; while Al‐HIP‐3 with rigid ionic moieties and a relatively low Al/Cl ratio exhibits higher specific surface area and stronger CO2 capture ability. Therefore, this co‐condensation strategy provides a simple and feasible pathway for adjusting the reactivity ratios of comonomers via simple structural changes in the knitting process, thus achieving the rational construction of multifunctionalized HCPs for CO2 capture and in‐situ conversion to cyclic carbonates.