A new synthetic strategy of Aluminium(III)-porphyrin-based conjugated microporous polymers with efficient CO2 catalytic conversion at ambient conditions

The conversion of CO2 cycloaddition to value-added cyclic carbonates is of considerable interest owing to the renewable greenhouse gas and 100 % atomic economy. However, it is still a big challenge to develop low-cost and high-efficient catalysts. Here, we report a facile design way, in a single step, for the creation of robust catalytic nanoreactors for heterogeneous catalyst in the cycloaddition of CO2 to cyclic carbonates. The Al(III)-porphyrin-based porous organic polymer catalysts exhibited remarkably high efficiency for propylene carbonate with turnover frequencies of up to 443.6 h−1 at room temperature and atmospheric pressure without solvent, which notably surpasses most previously reported heterogeneous catalysts and relevant homogeneous catalysts. Even using dilute CO2 (15 % CO2 in N2), a TOF up to 27.0 h−1 could be afforded under ambient conditions (25 °C, 1 bar) by Al-Por-POP-2, which showed high stability for recyclability up to 10 times without a significant decrease. These studies provided a simple and efficient synthetic strategy in favor of mass production and future industrial application for the cycloaddition of CO2 with low cost and high efficiency.