Porous sorbents for direct capture of carbon dioxide from ambient air

Large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal technology is an essential step to cope with global warming and achieve carbon neutrality. Direct air capture (DAC) has recently received increasing attention given the high flexibility to remove CO2 from discrete sources. Porous materials with adjustable pore characteristics are promising sorbents with low or no latent heat of vaporization. This review article has summarized the recent development of porous sorbents for DAC, with a focus of pore engineering strategy and adsorption mechanism. Physisorbents such as zeolites, porous carbons, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and amine-modified chemisorbents have been discussed and their challenges in practical application have been analyzed. At last, future directions have been proposed, and it is expected to inspire collaborations from chemistry, environment, material science and engineering communities.