Conferring Poly(ionic liquid)s with High Surface Areas for Enhanced Catalytic Activity
Hongbing Song, Yongjie Wang, Yule Liu, Lei Chen, Bingxiao Feng, Xin Jin, Yu Zhou, Tingting Huang, Meng Xiao, Fangmin Huang, Hengjun Gai
Abstract
Three ionic liquid (IL) monomers consisting of one, two, and four benzene rings were designed with 2-phenylimidazole and polymerized with α,α′-dichloro-p-xylene (DCX) and formaldehyde dimethyl acetal (FDA) to form a series of novel poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs). In this process, the designed ILs were employed as active ionic sites, and DCX and FDA were selected as cross-linkers. Self-condensation of the cross-linker provided a large specific surface area for the hypercross-linked organic framework, while co-condensation between the cross-linker and IL introduced active sites to the framework. The obtained porous hypercross-linked PILs not only promoted CO2 capture and the selective absorption of CO2/N2 but also showed good activity for the cycloaddition of epoxide with CO2. HP-[BZPhIm]Cl-DCX-1 with a large surface area (763 m2·g–1) showed a CO2 uptake capacity of 1.47 mmol·g–1 and offered a 98.9% yield of the CO2 cycloaddition product with epichlorohydrin at 80 °C for 24 h under 0.1 MPa CO2 pressure. The designed PILs provide an important reaction for CO2 utilization.