Tissue paper-liked conjugated microporous polymers film for bacteria inhibition

Abstract

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) film featuring with unique two-dimensional structure and well-developed microporosity inheriting from CMPs shows outstanding function for separation and water purification. However, it is still a great challenge to synthesize truly self-standing CMPs films or membranes with large areas and processible intensity. In this work, inspired by surface-assisted polymerization, taking 1,4-diethynylbenzene and 1,3,5-triethynylbenzene as monomer models, we fabricated three soft tissue paper-liked CMPs films with highly mechanical robustness and flexibility through Pd/Cu-catalyzed homocoupling polymerization combined with a facile template method. All the resulting CMPs films consisted of hollow nanotubes whose physical strength and continuity could be tuned by alkynyl monomers. ACMP1 derived from 1,4-diethynylbenzene showed the maximum elongation and tensile strength with a large area of ∼46 cm2. Moreover, ACMP1 was served as an efficient supporter to prepare ACMP1/silver nanoparticles composite by one-step reduction reaction. The silver nanoparticles were uniformly coated the outer surface of nanotubes and retained the original microporosity of ACMP1, endowing the composite good antibacterial activity against E. coli in water. Our work is expected to provide a platform to develop macroscale CMPs-based film with antibacterial function for water purification and environment remediation.