title: Swellable, water- and acid-tolerant polymer sponges for chemoselective carbon dioxide capture.
abstract: To impact carbon emissions, new materials for carbon capture must be inexpensive, robust, and able to adsorb CO2 specifically from a mixture of other gases. In particular, materials must be tolerant to the water vapor and to the acidic impurities that are present in gas streams produced by using fossil fuels to generate electricity. We show that a porous organic polymer has excellent CO2 capacity and high CO2 selectivity under conditions relevant to precombustion CO2 capture. Unlike polar adsorbents, such as zeolite 13x and the metal-organic framework, HKUST-1, the CO2 adsorption capacity for the hydrophobic polymer is hardly affected by the adsorption of water vapor. The polymer is even stable to boiling in concentrated acid for extended periods, a property that is matched by few microporous adsorbents. The polymer adsorbs CO2 in a different way from rigid materials by physical swelling, much as a sponge adsorbs water. This gives rise to a higher CO2 capacities and much better CO2 selectivity than for other water-tolerant, nonswellable frameworks, such as activated carbon and ZIF-8. The polymer has superior function as a selective gas adsorbent, even though its constituent monomers are very simple organic feedstocks, as would be required for materials preparation on the large industrial scales required for carbon capture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Centre for Materials Discovery and ⊥Department of Chemistry and Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, University of Liverpool , Crown Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Woodward
authors.forename: Lee A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dawson
authors.forename: Meera
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vijayaraghavan
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasell
authors.forename: Ian P
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: Silverwood
authors.forename: Andrew V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Ewing
authors.forename: Thanchanok
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ratvijitvech
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Exley
authors.forename: Samantha Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Blanc
authors.forename: Dave J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Sergei G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kazarian
authors.forename: Colin E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Snape
authors.forename: Trevor C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Drage
authors.forename: Andrew I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Cooper