Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity Chemical Sorbents Utilizing Primary Amine Appendance Through Acid-Base and Hydrogen-Bonding Interactions

Here, we present novel chemical sorbents based on polymers with intrinsic microporosity (PIMs). For the first time, alkylamines were incorporated in PIMs through an acid-base interaction to create a chemisorbent. The amine-appended PIMs not only showed a nearly four-fold enhancement in CO₂ loading capacity (36.4 cc/g at 0.15 bar and 298 K) and very high CO₂/N₂ selectivity compared to neat PIM-1 but also proved to have stable performance when cycled between adsorption and desorption isotherms under both dry and humid conditions that are typical for postcombustion CO₂ capture.