Ice-templated fabrication of porous imidazole based polymers for CO2 adsorption

Abstract

Poly-n-vinyl imidazole and its low-cost derivatives have been synthesized using ice-templation method and the synthesized porous organic polymeric material has been employed for CO₂ capture at room temperature. Simple modification of the monomer introducing –OH and –NH₂ groups followed by polymerization lead to two new polymers. All the three polymers have been characterized thoroughly using NMR and mass spectrometry. Ice-templated method has been found to create fibrous porous network inside the material as can be revealed by scanning electron microscopy. Thermal stability of porous polymeric network has been signified through TGA. Introduction of hetero atoms like oxygen and nitrogen in the polymeric matrix show improved CO₂ uptake due to increase in number of CO₂-philic sites as demonstrated by BET adsorption isotherm.