Construction of heterogeneous FLPs based on ZIF-derived porous carbons for CO2 capture and conversion

The capture and conversion of CO 2 are crucial for achieving carbon reduction targets. Currently, porous carbon is regarded as the most promising material for CO 2 capture, but it is limited by the lack of effective catalytic conversion functional sites. Frustrated Lewis Pairs (FLPs) are considered the most promising metal-free catalysts for CO 2 conversion, but homogeneous catalytic systems fall short of meeting industrial demands. To address this, this paper selected zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8 and ZIF-67) derived N-doped porous carbon (ZIF-8-C and ZIF-67-C) as Lewis base and subsequently introduces B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 to construct B/N-based FLPs, namely ZIF-8-C-FLPs and ZIF-67-C-FLPs. This approach aimed to simultaneously enhance the catalytic conversion ability of porous carbon towards CO 2 and the heterogenization of FLPs. These ZIF-8-C-FLPs and ZIF-67-C-FLPs exhibited exceptional CO 2 capture capacity, with CO 2 adsorption capacities of 57.4 and 41.2 cm 3 /g at 273.15 K and 1 bar, respectively. Additionally, ZIF-8-C-FLPs and ZIF-67-C-FLPs were utilized to catalyze the preparation of benzimidazole and benzoxazole from o-phenylenediamine and o-aminophenol with CO 2 , demonstrating excellent catalytic performance (yields above 86 %) and recyclability (at least 8 cycles).