Meso-macroporous polymer densely functionalized with tertiary amine groups as effective sorbents for SO2 capture

Abstract

• A meso-macroporous polymer was synthesized by one-step solvothermal polymerization. • The polymer has abundant mesopores and macropores, as well as large pore volume. • A polytertiary amine was immobilized in the polymer to prepare composite sorbents. • The composite sorbents are dense in the functionalization of tertiary amine groups. • The composite sorbents exhibit excellent efficiency for the capture of SO 2 at low pressures. Developing new technologies for the reduction of SO 2 emission is highly demanded. In this work, a meso-macroporous polymer was synthesized by one-step solvothermal polymerization of divinylbenzene (DVB). The synthesized polymer-polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) also has considerably large pore volume. Given these features, a series of composite sorbents with a polytertiary amine (PTA) physically immobilized in PDVB were then synthesized, and subsequently characterized and investigated for the capture of SO 2 in details. The PTA loadings of composite sorbents range from 1.00 to 2.35 g/g, which are dense in the functionalization of tertiary amine groups that enable Lewis base-acid interaction with SO 2 . As a result, the composite sorbents exhibit excellent efficiency for SO 2 capture, especially at extremely low pressures. The SO 2 adsorption capacities of composite sorbents have the values of 3.86 ~ 6.88 mmol/g of SO 2 at 25 °C and 0.002 bar. The composite sorbents are also excellent for the selective separation of SO 2 from CO 2 and N 2 , as well as the excellent reversibility for the adsorption of SO 2 .