Post-Combustion Capture of Carbon Dioxide by Natural and Synthetic Organic Polymers

Abstract

The elevation of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere is responsible for global warming which in turn causes abrupt climate change and consequently poses a threat to living organisms in the coming years. To reduce CO2 content in the atmosphere CO2 capture and separation is highly necessary. Among various methods of CO2 capture post-combustion capture is very much useful because of its operational simplicity and applicability in many industries and power sectors, such as coal-fired power plants. Polymers with high surface area, high volume and narrow pores are ideal solid sorbents for adsorption-driven post-combustion CO2 capture. Natural polymers, such as polysaccharides are cheap, abundant, and can be modified by various methods to produce porous materials and thus can be effectively utilized for CO2 capture while the surface area and the pore size of synthetic porous organic polymers can be tuned precisely for high CO2 capturing capacity. A significant amount of research activities has already been established in this field, especially in the last ten years and are still in progress. In this review, we have introduced the latest developments to the readers about synthetic techniques, post-synthetic modifications and CO2 capture capacities of various biopolymer-based materials and synthetic porous organic polymers (POPs) published in the last five years (2018–2022). This review will be beneficial to the researchers to design smart polymer-based materials to overcome the existing challenges in carbon capture and storage/sequestration.

Construction of Polymers with Highly Dispersed Reactive Phases and Open Pores for Catalyzing the Efficient Synthesis of CO2 to α‐Methylene Cyclic Carbonates

“…At 273 K and 1 bar, the CO 2 adsorption capacity of Cu@CP-PII is 33.2 cm 3 • g À 1 (Figure 3C), and the adsorption enthalpy of the catalyst under low CO 2 coverage is calculated by Clausius-Clapeyron equation to be 28.1 KJ/mol, indicating that there is a strong surface bonding force of Cu@CP-PII material and CO 2 (Figure 3D). [22] In addition, the adsorption selectivity of Cu@CP-PII through ideal adsorption theory calculation (V CO2 :V N2 = 15 : 85 in typical flue gas composition ratio) is 27 : 1, which is much higher than that of the macroporous material Cu@PII (18 : 1). The outstanding adsorption performance of Cu@CP-PII may be resulting from synergistic effect of structure and pore size, thus realizing smoothly capture-conversion process of carbon dioxide.…”