A comprehensive review on advanced zeolite–polymer architectures for high-performance CO2 capture

• Carbohydrate polymers enable sustainable shaping of zeolite-based CO 2 adsorbents. • Polysaccharide matrices preserve zeolite microporosity while enhancing moisture tolerance. • Interfacial polymer architecture controls diffusion, pore accessibility, and cyclic stability. • Polymer chemistry tunes CO 2 affinity and mitigates competitive H 2 O adsorption. • A mechanistic framework links composite design to performance under humid conditions. . The CO 2 emissions continue to intensify the need for scalable, energy-efficient separation technologies for point-source mitigation. Zeolites remain benchmark physisorbents due to their crystalline microporosity, high density of adsorption sites, and molecular sieving; however, their performance frequently deteriorates under humid feeds. Zeolite–polymer composites are emerging as a robust engineering solution to this bottleneck, synergistically coupling the high density of crystalline adsorption sites and molecular sieving of zeolites with the tunable moisture tolerance and reversible chemisorption of polymers. This comprehensive review critically evaluates recent advances in the integration of natural and synthetic zeolites with diverse polymer matrices, including chitosan, polyethyleneimine (PEI), cationic polyelectrolytes, and polyacrylates. We systematically analyze how polymer chemistry, interfacial loading, and spatial distribution govern crucial performance metrics: pore preservation, diffusion resistance, and cyclic stability. Emphasizing exceptional gas separation performance, we highlight state-of-the-art composites such as clinoptilolite@chitosan, which achieves an outstanding CO 2 uptake of 9.01 mmol g −1 at 298 K and 9 bar. Furthermore, optimal polymer impregnation markedly enhances high-temperature performance; for example, MCM-41-PEI architectures (50 wt% loading) deliver 4.89 mmol g-1 at 348 K, representing a 24-fold increase in capacity over the raw support. Beyond capacity, polymer-enabled microstructural engineering can invert traditional selectivity trade-offs, as seen in Na-Y@polyacrylate systems that exhibit a simultaneous 17.9% enhancement in CO 2 affinity alongside a 36.6% suppression of competitive H 2 O uptake. By consolidating empirical evidence into a unified mechanistic framework, this review provides crucial design guidelines for optimizing zeolite-polymer interphases, facilitating the rational development of next-generation, moisture-tolerant, and highly recyclable adsorbents with lowered regeneration energy for industrial CO 2 mitigation. .