Triptycene-Based Microporous Polymer with Pending Tetrazole Moieties for CO2 -Capture Application

Building a Co-Salen-Immobilized Porous Organic Polymer Catalyst for CO2 Cycloaddition

The CO2-epoxide addition to cyclic carbonate is of great significance but usually requires high temperatures and CO2 pressures. Herein, a spirobifluorene-based porous organic polymer catalyst is designed with a Co-salen complex immobilized on the backbone (ST-CoSalen-POP) to enable CO2 fixation under mild conditions. ST-CoSalen-POP possesses a high Co-loading content (9.35 wt%), a large pore volume, and high CO2 adsorption capacity. This catalyst achieves a 96% yield in the cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxides at 25 °C and 0.1 MPa CO2 pressures. Moreover, ST-CoSalen-POP also offers the advantages of wide adaptability over epoxide substrates and high structural stability for three consecutive cycles. This study presents a novel catalytic approach for promoting CO2 fixation, offering a significant advancement in the efficient synthesis of fine chemicals.

Facile Synthesis of a Pentiptycene-Based Highly Microporous Organic Polymer for Gas Storage and Water Treatment

Rigid H-shaped pentiptycene units, with an intrinsic hierarchical structure, were employed to fabricate a highly microporous organic polymer sorbent via Friedel-Crafts reaction/polymerization. The obtained microporous polymer exhibits good thermal stability, a high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of 1604 m² g^-1, outstanding CO₂, H₂, and CH₄ storage capacities, as well as good adsorption selectivities for the separation of CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ gas pairs. The CO₂ uptake values reached as high as 5.00 mmol g^-1 (1.0 bar and 273 K), which, along with high adsorption selectivity values (e.g., 47.1 for CO₂/N₂), make the pentiptycene-based microporous organic polymer (PMOP) a promising sorbent material for carbon capture from flue gas and natural gas purification. Moreover, the PMOP material displayed superior absorption capacities for organic solvents and dyes. For example, the maximum adsorption capacities for methylene blue and Congo red were 394 and 932 mg g^-1, respectively, promoting the potential of the PMOP as an excellent sorbent for environmental remediation and water treatment.

Triptycene-Based Microporous Cyanate Resins for Adsorption/Separations of Benzene/Cyclohexane and Carbon Dioxide Gas

Triptycene-based cyanate monomers 2,6,14-tricyanatotriptycene (TPC) and 2,6,14-tris(4-cyanatophenyl)triptycene (TPPC) that contain different numbers of benzene rings per molecule were synthesized, from which two microporous cyanate resins PCN-TPC and PCN-TPPC were prepared. Of interest is the observation that the two polymers have very similar porosity parameters, but PCN-TPPC uptakes considerably higher benzene (77.8 wt %) than PCN-TPC (17.6 wt %) at room temperature since the higher concentration of phenyl groups in PCN-TPPC enhances the π-π interaction with benzene molecules. Besides, the adsorption capacity of benzene in PCN-TPPC is dramatically 7 times as high as that of cyclohexane. Contrary to the adsorption of organic vapors, at 273 K and 1.0 bar, PCN-TPC with more heteroatoms in the network skeleton displays larger uptake of CO₂ and higher CO₂/N₂ selectivity (16.4 wt %, 60) than those of PCN-TPPC (14.0 wt %, 39). The excellent and unique adsorption properties exhibit potential applications in the purification of small molecular organic hydrocarbons, e.g., separation of benzene from benzene/cyclohexane mixture as well as CO₂ capture from flue gas. Moreover, the results are helpful for deeply understanding the effect of porous and chemical structures on the adsorption properties of organic hydrocarbons and CO₂ gas.

Functionalization of polyacrylonitrile with tetrazole groups for ultrafiltration membranes

A series of tetrazole-functionalized polyacrylonitrile (TZ-PAN) copolymers were synthesized via a post-modification cycloaddition reaction of nitriles with azide for ultrafiltration (UF) membrane application.