A facile synthesis of microporous organic polymers for efficient gas storage and separation

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2015-01, Vol.3 (6), p.3051-3058
• Main Authors: Liu, Guoliang, Wang, Yangxin, Shen, Chaojun, Ju, Zhanfeng, Yuan, Daqiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/C4TA05349D

A series of porous hyper-cross-linked polymers with excellent physiochemical stability have been designed and prepared facilely through template-free Friedel–Crafts alkylation reactions between benzene/biphenyl/1,3,5-triphenylbenzene as co-condensing rigid aromatic building blocks and 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)benzene or 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)-2,4,6-trimethylbenzene as cross-linkers under the catalysis of anhydrous AlCl 3 or FeCl 3 . The systematic study of gas uptake ability shows that anhydrous AlCl 3 is a much more effective catalyst than anhydrous FeCl 3 . The synthesized polymers are thermally stable and are predominantly microporous with high surface areas up to 1783 m 2 g −1 . In addition, they exhibit high H 2 and CO 2 uptake capacity/selectivity. Among these materials, C1M3-Al has the highest H 2 uptake capacity at 77 K and 1 bar (19.1 mg g −1 ) and CO 2 uptake capacity at 273 K and 1 bar (181 mg g −1 ); the best CO 2 /N 2 (15/85) selectivity calculated by IAST at 273 K and 1 bar belongs to C1M2-Al (32.3). Moreover, the synthesis route exhibits cost-effective advantages, which are essential for scale-up preparation, thus showing great potential for clean energy applications.