Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Frustrated Lewis Pairs for the Activation and Transformation of CO₂

Abstract

Due to the serious ecological problems caused by the high CO2 content in the atmosphere, reducing atmospheric CO2 has attracted widespread attention from academia and governments. Among the many ways to mitigate CO2 concentration, the capture and comprehensive utilization of CO2 through chemical methods have obvious advantages, whose key is to develop suitable adsorbents and catalysts. Frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) are known to bind CO2 through the interaction between unquenched Lewis acid sites/Lewis base sites with the O/C of CO2, simultaneously achieving CO2 capture and activation, which render FLP better potential for CO2 utilization. However, how to construct efficient FLP targeted for CO2 utilization and the mechanism of CO2 activation have not been systematically reported. This review firstly provides a comprehensive summary of the recent advances in the field of CO2 capture, activation, and transformation with the help of FLP, including the construction of homogeneous and heterogeneous FLPs, their interaction with CO2, reaction activity, and mechanism study. We also illustrated the challenges and opportunities faced in this field to shed light on the prospective research.