Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Frustrated Lewis Pairs for the Activation and Transformation of CO.

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