Porous copper-based Nano-reactors for in situ conversion of dilute carbon dioxide.

Conventional carbon dioxide (CO2) valorization requires concentrated streams, but most sources are dilute, necessitating energy-intensive and costly capture steps. Here, we report a direct strategy for utilizing dilute CO2 by employing a copper-based porous nano-reactors (Cu@POP-IS), which integrates the capture and activation steps. These reactors possesse an average pore size of 1.3 nm and exhibits a CO2 adsorption capacity of 55.77 cm3/g at 273 K. More importantly, the functional sites within its framework enable the simultaneous catalytic conversion of dilute CO2 stream (8-35 vol%) in actual waste gases and regeneration of the nano-reactors, achieving an oxazolidinone yield of 61-99%. This result demonstrates the dual functionality of the nano-reactors (capturing and activating CO2) and underscores the integrated energy and economic advantages of our approach. Furthermore, we reveal that CO2 reactivity is modulated by its interactions with specific active sites. This finding provides a general principle for the rational design of functionalized nano-reactors to advance the resource-oriented utilization of CO2.