Solvent-Free Self-Assembly to the Synthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Ordered Mesoporous Polymers for Highly Selective Capture and Conversion of CO2.

A solvent-free induced self-assembly technology for the synthesis of nitrogen-doped ordered mesoporous polymers (N-OMPs) is developed, which is realized by mixing polymer precursors with block copolymer templates, curing at 140-180 °C, and calcination to remove the templates. This synthetic strategy represents a significant advancement in the preparation of functional porous polymers through a fast and scalable yet environmentally friendly route, since no solvents or catalysts are used. The synthesized N-OMPs and their derived catalysts are found to exhibit competitive CO2 capacities (0.67-0.91 mmol g-1 at 25 °C and 0.15 bar), extraordinary CO2 /N2 selectivities (98-205 at 25 °C), and excellent activities for catalyzing conversion of CO2 into cyclic carbonate (conversion >95% at 100 °C and 1.2 MPa for 1.5 h). The solvent-free technology developed in this work can also be extended to the synthesis of N-OMP/SiO2 nanocomposites, mesoporous SiO2 , crystalline mesoporous TiO2 , and TiPO, demonstrating its wide applicability in porous material synthesis.