Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Photo‐modulating CO2 uptake of hypercrosslinked polymers upcycled from polystyrene waste
AU - Liu, Aotian
AU - Mollart, Catherine
AU - Trewin, Abbie
AU - Fan, Xianfeng
AU - Lau, Cher Hon
PY - 2023/2/11
Y1 - 2023/2/11
N2 - Incorporating photo-switches into pores of microporous materials yield photo-responsive materials for low-energy CO2capture. However, such approaches reduce CO2 uptake of these materials. Here we overcome this limitation by exploiting trans-cis photoisomerization of azobenzene located in the pores of a hypercrosslinked polymer (HCP) derived from waste polystyrene to enhance CO2 uptake by 22 % when compared to pristine HCPs, reaching 56.9 cm3 g-1. Computational simulations show that this increase in CO2 uptake is due to photo-modulated pore widening effect and a positive dipole moment that enhanced CO2-azobenzene interactions. Vis-irradiating cis-HCPs@Azo reverted CO2 uptake to 33 cm3 g-1, like pristine HCP@Azo. This was attributed to a lack of a dipole moment and larger trans-azobenzene molecules reducing CO2 uptake in the smaller pores of trans-HCPs@Azo. This work shows the feasibility of recycling polystyrene waste into advanced materials for low-energy CO2 capture.
AB - Incorporating photo-switches into pores of microporous materials yield photo-responsive materials for low-energy CO2capture. However, such approaches reduce CO2 uptake of these materials. Here we overcome this limitation by exploiting trans-cis photoisomerization of azobenzene located in the pores of a hypercrosslinked polymer (HCP) derived from waste polystyrene to enhance CO2 uptake by 22 % when compared to pristine HCPs, reaching 56.9 cm3 g-1. Computational simulations show that this increase in CO2 uptake is due to photo-modulated pore widening effect and a positive dipole moment that enhanced CO2-azobenzene interactions. Vis-irradiating cis-HCPs@Azo reverted CO2 uptake to 33 cm3 g-1, like pristine HCP@Azo. This was attributed to a lack of a dipole moment and larger trans-azobenzene molecules reducing CO2 uptake in the smaller pores of trans-HCPs@Azo. This work shows the feasibility of recycling polystyrene waste into advanced materials for low-energy CO2 capture.
KW - Hypercrosslinked polymer
KW - gas adsorption
KW - Photo-responsive polymer
KW - Plastic Recycling
U2 - 10.1002/cssc.202300019
DO - 10.1002/cssc.202300019
M3 - Journal article
JO - ChemSusChem
JF - ChemSusChem
SN - 1864-5631
M1 - e202300019
ER -