Sorption of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen on Porous Hyper-Cross-Linked Aromatic Polymers: Effect of Textural Properties, Composition, and Electrostatic Interactions.

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Porous hyper-cross-linked aromatic polymers are one of the emerging classes of porous organic polymers with the potential for industrial application. Four different porous polymeric materials have been prepared using different precursors (indole, pyrene, carbazole, and naphthalene), and the composition and textural properties were analyzed. The materials were characterized in detail using different physicochemical techniques like scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, etc. The effect of textural properties and nitrogen species on carbon dioxide and nitrogen adsorption capacities and selectivity was studied and discussed. The carbon dioxide and nitrogen adsorption capacities were measured using a volumetric gas adsorption system. The adsorption data were fitted into different adsorption models, and the ideal absorbed solution theory was used to calculate adsorption selectivity. Among the studied samples, POP-4 shows the highest carbon dioxide and nitrogen adsorption capacities. While POP-1 shows maximum CO2/N2 selectivity of 78.0 at 298 K and 1 bar pressure. It is observed that ultra-micropores, which are present in the prepared materials but not measured during conventional surface area measurement via nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, play a very important role in carbon dioxide adsorption capacity and determining the carbon dioxide selectivity over nitrogen. Surface nitrogen also increases the CO2 selectivity in the dual mode by increasing carbon dioxide adsorption via the acid-base interaction as well as by decreasing nitrogen adsorption due to N-N repulsion.