Building N‐Heterocyclic Carbene into Triazine‐Linked Polymer for Multiple CO 2 Utilization

The development of new CO 2 detection technologies and CO 2 “capture‐conversion” materials is of great significance due to the growing environmental crisis. Here, multifunctional triazine‐linked polymers with built‐in N‐heterocyclic carbene (NHC) sites (designated as NHC‐triazine@polymer) are presented for simultaneous CO 2 detection, capture, activation, and catalytic conversion. NHC‐triazine@polymer were readily obtained through polymerization of cyanophenyl‐substituted NHC. The obtained film‐like polymers exhibited interesting CO 2 ‐triggered fluorescence “turn‐on” response and CO 2 ‐sensitive reversible color change. Both NHC and triazine sites could act as efficient binding sites for CO 2 , and the CO 2 uptake of NHC and triazine reached 1.52 and 1.36 mmol g −1 , respectively. Notably, after being captured by NHC, CO 2 was activated into a zwitterionic adduct NHC−CO 2 that could be easily transformed into cyclic carbonate in the presence of epoxides. Moreover, NHC‐triazine@polymer were stable and active catalysts for the conversion of low‐concentration CO 2 in a gas mixture (7 vol %) into cyclic carbonates as well as for hydrosilylation of CO 2 to formamides.