Tunable construction of biphenyl-based porous polymeric nanostructures and their synergistically enhanced performance in pollutant adsorption and energy storage

Abstract

Morphological diversity and porosity of porous organic polymers (POPs) exert vital influence on their potential applications. Herein, we demonstrate the morphology and porosity design of biphenyl-based hyper-cross-linked porous organic polymers by using a Lewis acid catalyzed Friedel–Crafts polymerization in the presence of formaldehyde dimethyl acetal (FDA) as cross-linker. The chemical composition of POPs is tunable by simply varying monomer to FDA ratio, leading to considerable morphological diversity such as the nanospheres, nanofibers, and flower-like nanostructures. High specific surface areas with mostly microporous nature, stable organic frameworks and tunable morphologies coupled with facile synthetic protocol let the hyper-cross-linked polybiphenyl (HCPbPh) based POPs exhibit the outstanding adsorption capacity and efficiency towards p-cresol based pollutant. The obtained carbon materials by direct pyrolysis of corresponding POPs can be used as the electrode materials for supercapacitors, exhibiting outstanding electrochemical performance with specific capacitance up to 421 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, and capacitance retention of 97% even after 10,000 cycles at 12 A g−1. This methodology delivers a new platform for the fabrication of microporous and mesoporous materials for various potential applications including energy storage, adsorption, and catalysis.