Fabrication of PEI‐grafted porous polymer foam for CO 2 capture

A polymer foam material with both the open‐cell porous structure and the polyethylenemine (PEI)‐grafted inner face was constructed for CO 2 capture. The porous poly(tert‐butyl acrylate) foam was first prepared via a concentrated emulsion polymerization, and then the carboxyl groups were introduced on the interface of porous polymer after the hydrolysis reaction. Subsequently, the surface of the foam was grafted with PEI, and finally the PEI‐grafted porous polymer foam designed as a CO 2 capture material was obtained. The structures of the foams were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, EDS, and SEM. The CO 2 adsorption properties were measured by adsorption/desorption cycles. As a result, the polymer foam contained a large number of amine groups (13.9 wt % N), and therefore possessed a high CO 2 adsorption capacity (5.91 mmol g −1 at 40°C and 100 kPa). In addition, they also exhibited high CO 2 adsorption rate, good selectivity for CO 2 ‐N 2 separation, and good stability according to CO 2 cyclic adsorption/desorption test. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47844.