Novel thiophene-bearing conjugated microporous polymer honeycomb-like porous spheres with ultrahigh iodine uptake. Issue 63 (15th July 2016) - Ren, Feng
Abstract : We demonstrated novel honeycomb-like porous spherical conjugated microporous polymers bearing thiophene units with ultrahigh iodine uptake. Abstract : Two conjugated microporous polymers containing thiophene-moieties (SCMPs) were obtained by the polymerization of 3, 3′, 5, 5′-tetrabromo-2, 2′-bithiophene and ethynylbenzene monomers through the palladium-catalyzed Sonogashira–Hagihara crosscoupling reaction. The resulting SCMPs show high thermal stability with a decomposition temperature above 300 °C. Scanning electron microscopy images show that the resulting SCMPs formed as an aggregation composed of micrometer-sized SCMP spheres, in which honeycomb-like porous spheres with penetrated pores on the surface were observed. Taking advantage of such a unique honeycomb-like porous morphology as well as π-conjugated structures, the SCMPs show ultrahigh absorption performance for iodine vapour with an uptake of up to 345 wt% obtained, which is the highest value reported to date for CMPs, thus making the resulting SCMPs ideal absorbent materials for reversible iodine capture to address environmental issues.