Carbon dioxide-philic compounds and methods of synthesis thereof

The present invention relates to compounds that are soluble in or miscible in carbon dioxide and to methods of synthesizing such compounds. A method of synthesizing a CO-philic analog of a CO-phobic compound, includes the step of: reacting the CO-phobic compound with a CO-philic compound selected from the group of a polyether substituted with at least one side group including preferably a Lewis base, a polycarbonate, a polycarbonate substituted with at least one side group including preferably a Lewis base, a vinyl polymer substituted with at least one side group including preferably a Lewis base a poly(ether-ester) or a poly(ether-ester) substituted with at least one side group including preferably a Lewis base, to create the CO-philic analog. A method of synthesizing a CO-phile includes the step of copolymerizing at least two monomers, wherein a polymer formed from homopolymerization of one of the monomers has a Tof less than approximately 250 K and a steric factor less than approximately 1.8, at least one of the monomers contains a group that results in a pendant group from the CO-phile backbone that contains a Lewis base group, and the resultant CO-phile does not contain both hydrogen bond donors and acceptors.