Design of porous organic polymer catalysts for transformation of carbon dioxide

Abstract

The transformation of carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels and chemicals is an interesting topic, which has been paid much attention in recent years. The materials with specific functionalities are highly required for CO2 capture and conversion, which have been widely investigated. As an emerging material platform, porous organic polymers (POPs) have attracted considerable scientific interest due to their distinctive properties such as tailorable functionalization, large surface areas, adjustable porosity, versatile polymerizations, good physicochemical and thermal stability. Our group focuses on designing and synthesizing POPs via introducing CO2-philic groups and organic ligands into the skeletons of the polymers and immobilizing metal active species onto their surface, and a series of POPs with functional groups, such as azo, Tröger's base, fluorine, phenolic –OH, have been prepared for CO2 transformation. In this review article, we mainly introduce our recent work on design of POPs-based catalysts for CO2 transformation, which include POPs-based catalysts for cycloaddition reactions of epoxides and propargylic alcohols with CO2, for reductive transformation of CO2 with H2, for photocatalytic/electrocatalytic reduction of CO2. In addition, the perspectives of the POP-based catalysts for CO2 transformation will be discussed as well.