Processing nanoporous organic polymers in liquid amines.

Jeehye Byun,Cafer T Yavuz,Damien Thirion

doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.179

Abstract

Rigid network structures of nanoporous organic polymers provide high porosity, which is beneficial for applications such as gas sorption, gas separation, heterogeneous (photo)catalysis, sensing, and (opto)electronics. However, the network structures are practically insoluble. Thus, the processing of nanoporous polymers into nanoparticles or films remains challenging. Herein, we report that nanoporous polymers made via a Knoevenagel-like condensation can be easily processed into nanoparticles (115.7 ± 40.8 nm) or a flawless film by using liquid amines as a solvent at elevated temperatures. FTIR spectra revealed that the carboxyl groups in the nanoporous polymers act as reactive sites for amines, forming new functionalities and spacing the polymeric chains to be dissolved in the liquid amines. The processed film was found to be CO2-philic despite the low surface area, and further able to be transformed into a fine carbon film by thermal treatment.

Highlights

Nanoporous polymers offer permanent porosity along with robust and light-weight frameworks
When ethylenediamine (EDA) was added to covalent organic polymers (COP)-100 under elevated temperatures, the short amine chains penetrated into COP-100 and formed the new functionalities with carbonyl units, creating room between the polymeric backbones to be dissolved in liquid amines
FTIR revealed that the carbonyl groups in the polymers were reactive sites that helped to solubilize the structures in liquid amines by forming amide functionality

Summary

Introduction

Nanoporous polymers offer permanent porosity along with robust and light-weight frameworks. Nanoporous polymers built via Knoevenagel-like condensations are made to be soluble in liquid amines and show structural processibility. 100 °C), the condensate nanoporous polymers were completely dissolved in neat liquid amines in a few seconds, and the resulting polymer solution was able to be transformed into either nanoparticles or flawless films.

Results

Conclusion