The continuous release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will definitely cause damage to environment. Environmental protection and reducing global warming are become very essential. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due to continuous burning of fossil fuel to attain the energy requirements. A novel method of adsorbing the most important greenhouse gas carbon dioxide using some ternary complex materials capable of adsorbing the gases effectively were studied. A ternary complex system with Zn (II) metal ion chelated with ampicillin(A) as primary ligand and imidazole derivates him/hist/his(B) as secondary ligands ZnAB(B=hist/his)/ZnAB2 (B=him) species in all these systems were isolated and the analytical data confirm its formation. Non electrolytic behaviour and monomeric type of chelates have been assessed from their low conductance values. The vibrational spectral data were interpreted to find the mode of binding of ligands to metal. The powder XRD and SEM analysis of the complexes suggest nano crystalline nature. The AFM images of selected complexes suggest meso porous morphology which has higher tendency of adsorbing carbon dioxide gas. The ternary complexes exhibited surface areas ranging from 3.15 to 18.42 m2/g, with pore volumes of 0.004–0.008 cm3/g, and average pore diameters of 5.8–2.6 nm. An excellent carbon dioxide uptake (20–38 wt%) was achieved at high temperature and pressure (303 K and 40 bar, respectively) using the ternary complexes. The ZnAB(B=his) ternary complex material exhibited the highest carbon dioxide uptake (38 wt%) due to its higher surface area and pore volume compared with the other two ternary complexes.