Highly porous organic polymers bearing tertiary amine group and their exceptionally high CO2 uptake capacities

•Designing the synthesis of a new N-rich cross-linked porous organic polymer PDVTA-1.•PDVTA-1 showed mesoporosity with very high surface area of 903 m2 g−1.•High surface area and presence of basic sites facilitates the CO2 uptake.•PDVTA-1 showed exceptionally high CO2 adsorption capacity of 85.8 wt% at 273 K, 3 bar pressure.

We report a very simple and unique strategy for synthesis of a tertiary amine functionalized high surface area porous organic polymer (POP) PDVTA-1 through the co-polymerization of monomers divinylbenzene (DVB) and triallylamine (TAA) under solvothermal reaction conditions. Two different PDVTA-1 samples have been synthesized by varying the molar ratio of the monomers. The porous polymeric materials have been thoroughly characterized by solid state 13C CP MAS-NMR, FT-IR and UV–vis spectroscopy, N2 sorption, HR TEM and FE SEM to understand its chemical environment, nanostructure, bonding, morphology and related surface properties. PDVTA-1 with higher amine content (DVB/TAA=4.0) showed exceptionally high CO2 uptake capacity of 85.8 wt% (19.5 mmol g−1) at 273 K and 43.69 wt% (9.93 mmol g−1) at 298 K under 3 bar pressure, whereas relatively low amine loaded material (DVB/TAA=7.0) shows uptake capacity of 59.2 wt% (13.45 mmol g−1) at 273 K and 34.36 wt% (7.81 mmol g−1) at 298 K. Highly porous nanostructure together with very high surface area and basicity at the surface due to the presence of abundant basic tertiary amine N-sites in the framework of PDVTA-1 could be responsible for very high CO2 adsorption.

Graphical abstractExceptionally high CO2 uptake (85.8 wt % at 273 K) has been observed over a high surface area porous organic polymer PDVTA-1 synthesized through copolymerization of divinylbenzene and triallyl amine.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide