Zinc porphyrin-based porous polymer for the efficient CO2 fixation to cyclic carbonates at ambient temperature

This work reports the synthesis of Zinc porphyrin-based porous (POP-ZnTPP) by a typical Yamamoto-Ullmann coupling reaction, which exhibited abundant tiny nanopores, excellent CO 2 adsorption capacity, and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity. The open pore environment of POP-ZnTPP facilitated the exposure of active sites, which intensified the catalytic activity in the cycloaddition reaction of epoxides (PO) with CO 2 under mild conditions. As expected, POP-ZnTPP catalyst completely converted PO to cyclic carbonates (COCs) at ambient temperature (25 °C, 1.5 MPa). It is also worth noting that POP-ZnTPP could convert PO into COCs under the simulated flue gas (15% CO 2 and 85% N 2 , v/v) atmosphere, which is very favorable for industrial applications of CO 2 . In addition, POP-ZnTPP catalyst as one of the most outstanding catalysts exhibited excellent broad substrate scope and remarkable reusability. This work has a certain guiding significance for developing an environmentally friendly COC production process.