Solution-reprocessable polymers of intrinsic microporosity as adsorbents for carbon dioxide capture

Abstract

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission has been an urgent environmental and climate issue, yet remains a challenge to address. Solid adsorbents are potential candidates for CO2 capture while their insolubility nature makes the regeneration problematic when fouled. Here we report the synthesis of a thioamide incorporated polymer of intrinsic microporosity, TPIM, which features high intrinsic microporosity with specific surface areas of 531 m2/g, and good solubility in selected organic solvents such as THF, DMSO and DMAc. Static physisorption and kinetic breakthrough experiments revealed several promising features of TPIM: high CO2 capacity of 2.45 mmol/g at 1 bar and 298 K, good CO2/N2 mixture dynamic separation performance, and facile regeneration ability. Most interestingly, its porosity and CO2 capacity could be easily restored through a simple dissolution-separation-precipitation (DSP) approach, making it regenerative when fouled, providing a new insight for the future design of regenerable adsorbents.