Multipolar Donor‐Acceptor Conjugated Hypercrosslinked Polymers for Enhanced Visible‐Light Photoreduction of CO <sub>2</sub> to CO
Multipolar donor-acceptor (D-A) hypercrosslinked polymers provide well-defined charge-transfer pathways that enable efficient and selective CO<sub>2</sub> photoreduction under visible light. While such systems hold promise for CO<sub>2</sub> conversion, achieving high activity, long-term stability, and product selectivity remains challenging. Here, we present HCP-CoTPP-Cz-1, a multipolar D-A hypercrosslinked conjugated polymer synthesized via Scholl coupling. HCP-CoTPP-Cz-1 exhibits a high CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption capacity of 9.71 wt% at 273 K, which is associated with cobalt-containing units incorporated within the polymer network. In addition, the extended π-conjugated D-A framework promotes efficient charge separation and charge-carrier transport. Under photocatalytic conditions employing [Ru(bpy)<sub>3</sub>]Cl<sub>2</sub> as the photosensitizer and triethanolamine as the hole-sacrificial agent, HCP-CoTPP-Cz-1 achieves a CO evolution rate of 4402.5 µmol g<sup>-1</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> with an apparent quantum yield of 0.51% at 450 nm, representing a 37.5% enhancement compared with the non-D-A polymer HCP-CoTPP-s. Both catalysts maintain CO selectivity >99%. Mechanistic studies reveal that the multipolar D-A architecture facilitates charge separation and transfer, suppresses electron-hole recombination, and enhances both CO<sub>2</sub> capture capacity and catalytic stability. By demonstrating a rational polymer design that enables efficient and stable CO<sub>2</sub> photoreduction, this work presents a feasible strategy to convert CO<sub>2</sub> into CO within green chemical production pathways.
Authors
- Hui Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1000-1632)
- Jiarui Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9563-8956)
- Bien Tan
- Irshad Hussain
- Saif Ullah
- Xiaoyan Wang
- Sughra Manzoor
Institutions
- Lahore University of Management Sciences (PK)
- Ministry of Education (RO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ChemSusChem
- Published
- 2026-03-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202502678
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00