Vinylene-bridged donor-acceptor type porous organic polymers for enhanced photocatalysis of amine oxidative coupling reactions under visible light

• Published in: RSC advances 2021-10, Vol.11 (53), p.33653-3366
• Main Authors: Wu, Bang, Jiang, Xinyue, Liu, Yang, Li, Qiu-Yan, Zhao, Xinsheng, Wang, Xiao-Jun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amines; Chemical reactions; Chemistry; Conjugation; Coupling; Imines; Light irradiation; Photocatalysis; Polymers; Porosity
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d1ra06118f

Porous organic polymers (POPs), owing to their abundant porosity, high stability and well-tunable properties, are promising candidates as heterogeneous photocatalysts for organic transformations. Here we report two vinylene-bridged donor-acceptor (D-A) structural POPs (TpTc-POP and TbTc-POP) that are facilely constructed by the electron-rich triarylamine and electron-deficient tricyanomesitylene as key building blocks by the organic base catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation. Both TpTc-POP and TbTc-POP possess hierarchical meso- and micro-pores with a high surface area. Furthermore, the unsubstituted vinylene linkages of D-A moieties in their polymer backbones extend their π-conjugation and render their broad absorption range in the visible-light region. Thus, these DA-POPs exhibited highly effective photocatalytic activities for aerobic oxidative coupling of amines to imines under visible light irradiation. This study shows the great potential of conjugated POPs with a D-A structural feature in designing highly efficient and active heterogeneous photocatalytic systems. Two vinylene-bridged D-A structural POPs are constructed by the electron-rich triarylamine and electron-deficient tricyanomesitylene, which exhibited highly effective photocatalytic activities for aerobic oxidative coupling of amines to imine.