(135b) Covalent Organic Polymers (COPs) for Exceptional CO2 Adsorption

Efficient CO2 scrubbing without a significant energy penalty remains an outstanding challenge for the fossil fuel-burning industry where aqueous amine solutions are still widely used. One of the main challenges still remains to develop more efficient separation methods that can remove efficiently high fractions of acid gases from natural gas (or any other source) at pre and post combustion streams. For this purpose, for different sources of CO₂ different scenarios are being investigated in order to deal with the removal of CO₂ from various gas streams at various different pressure and temperature conditions. Thus, effective CO₂ capture is essential to investigate the further options to re-use the captured CO₂. Porous materials have long been evaluated for next generation CO₂ adsorbents. Porous polymers, robust and inexpensive, show promise as feasible materials for the capture of CO₂ from warm exhaust fumes. We report the syntheses of porous covalent organic polymers (COPs) with CO₂ adsorption capacities of up to 5616 mg/g (a world record - measured at high pressures, i.e. 200 bar) and industrially relevant temperatures (as warm as 65 ^oC). COPs are stable in boiling water for at least one week and near infinite CO₂/H₂ selectivity is observed. Theoretical calculations refer to an amorphous extended framework as density is likely the main reason for exceptional CO₂ capacities. COPs 1-2 feature basic nitrogen sites that show chemospecific affinity towards acidic gases such as CO₂. COP-3 has reasonably high surface area (418 m²/g), effective for low pressure operations. Post combustion carbon capture from fossil fuel power plants demands pressures of up to 6 bar and a minimum temperature of 40 ^oC. By tuning their architecture, we show that COPs reach to 3 mmol CO₂/g sorbent at 6 bar and 45 ^oC. High and low pressure capacities make these porous polymer structures viable alternatives to amine scrubbers.