Coal-fired power plants are the highest contributors to global electricity generation. Flue gases from thermal power plants are rich in carbon dioxide. Thus, thermal plants also contribute substantially to the annual increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 (greenhouse gas) which in turn leads to increased global warming and ocean acidification. Solutions to these problems are either capture of carbon dioxide from flue gas or exploring alternative sources of power generation such as nuclear energy. However, volatile radioactive byproducts produced in nuclear plants need to be arrested by a suitable adsorbent. Herein, for the first time, we report a triptycene-based hypercrosslinked porous polymer ( TBHCP-OH ) that contains CO 2 -philic groups (–OH and –N N–). It was obtained using a simple Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction. Mesoporous TBHCP-OH has high CO 2 capture capacity (87.6 mg/g) and excellent iodine vapor uptake capacity (2600 mg/g). This iodine uptake capacity is the highest among all triptycene based polymers reported till date. This may be attributed to the ample supramolecular interactions between arene/heteroatoms (O and N in TBHCP-OH ) and iodine. The facile and simple synthesis of TBHCP-OH as well as its ability to efficiently capture pollutants renders it a promising material for environmental remediation. • Design of a new triptycene based monomer with active CO2-philic (–N N– and –OH) and N2-phobic (azo) groups. • Facile synthesis of a mesoporous triptycene polymer ( TBHCP-OH ) with azo and phenolic functionalities via knitting strategy. • TBHCP-OH shows high CO 2 uptake of 8.76 wt.% at 273 K and 1 bar pressure which is comparable with monoethanolamine. • TBHCP-OH selectively captures CO 2 over N 2 at 1 bar which improves at higher temperature [273K (23) and 298 K (28)]. • High I 2 vapor adsorption capacity of TBHCP-OH (up to 2600 mg/g) is best among triptycene based polymers.