Highly stable nanoporous sulfur-bridged covalent organic polymers for carbon dioxide removal

Abstract

Carbon dioxide capture and separation requires robust solids that can stand harsh environments where a hot mixture of gases is often found. Herein, the first and comprehensive syntheses of porous sulfur-bridged covalent organic polymers (COPs) and their application for carbon dioxide capture in warm conditions and a wide range of pressures (0–200 bar) are reported. These COPs can store up to 3294 mg g−1 of carbon dioxide at 318 K and 200 bar while being highly stable against heating up to 400 °C. The carbon dioxide capacity of the COPs is also not hindered upon boiling in water for at least one week. Physisorptive binding is prevalent with isosteric heat of adsorptions around 24 kJ mol−1. M06–2X and RIMP2 calculations yield the same relative trend of binding energies, where, interestingly, the dimer of triazine and benzene play a cooperative role for a stronger binding of CO2 (19.2 kJ mol−1) as compared to a separate binding with triazine (13.3 kJ mol−1) or benzene (11.8 kJ mol−1).