Creating a Polar Surface in Carbon Frameworks from Single-Source Metal–Organic Frameworks for Advanced CO₂ Uptake and Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Creating a polar surface and a large surface area in porous materials offers a powerful strategy for various applications, like gas absorption and separation and energy storage and conversion. Highly conductive and environmentally friendly porous carbon exhibited unique advantages in these aspects. Here, we present a facile and yet efficient strategy for a highly polar surface and ultrahigh surface area in porous carbon frameworks by one-step carbonization of the single-precursor metal–organic framework that was built by mixed N- and P-containing ligands (NPMOF) in which N and P heteroatoms that provide a large number of exposed polar groups are in situ incorporated in the surface of the carbon framework. The highly polar surface and the interconnected pore with a considerably specific area maximizes the affinity for polar CO2 and polysulfide molecules, engendering this material excellent CO2 capture with exceptional cycling stability and renewability and the outstanding performance for the lithium–sulfur battery with high specific capacity and excellent stability. This work demonstrates the great advantages in making porous materials from MOFs for multifunctionality.