Covalent triazine frameworks for carbon dioxide capture

Abstract

Since the industrial revolution, the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases especially CO₂ released by human activity is increasing year by year, leading to a series of serious problems such as global warming and climate change. Finding a way to mitigate this dilemma is of crucial importance. Covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs), as a new class of porous materials, have gained considerable attention due to their attractive chemical and structural merits. They show great potential for various applications especially for CO₂ capture. In this review, we aim to provide recent advances in using CTFs for CO₂ capture. First, a brief background is provided including a summary statement on the current situation of the CO₂ issue, a general overview of typical porous materials used in CO₂ capture, and an introduction to CTFs. Second, synthetic reactions and methods related to CTFs are summarized and compared, and a short discussion of characterization methods is provided. Furthermore, CO₂ capture performance including CO₂ adsorption at low/high-pressure, gas selectivity, heat of CO₂ adsorption, recyclability and CO₂ capture of CTFs in a humid atmosphere is elucidated on the basis of CTF design. Then, strategies for enhancing the CO₂ adsorption ability of CTFs based on pore engineering and surface functionalization are given. Finally, a perspective of CTFs for CO₂ capture is presented.