A pressure swing approach to selective CO2 sequestration using functionalised hypercrosslinked polymers

Functionalised hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) with surface areas between 213 – 1124 m^2/g based on a range of monomers containing different chemical moieties are evaluated for CO2 capture using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) methodology under humid conditions and elevated temperatures. The networks demonstrated rapid CO2 uptake reaching maximum uptakes in under 60 seconds. The most promising networks demonstrating the best selectivity and highest uptakes were applied to a pressure swing setup using simulated flue gas streams. The carbazole, triphenylmethanol and triphenylamine networks were found to be capable of converting a dilute CO2 stream (> 20 %) into a concentrated stream (> 85 %) after only two pressure swing cycles from 20 bar (adsorption) to 1 bar (desorption). This work demonstrates the ease by which readily synthesised functional porous materials can be successfully applied to a pressure swing methodology and used to separate CO2 from N2 from industrially applicable simulated gas streams under more realistic conditions.