Nitrogen-rich conjugated microporous polymers (NCMPs) have attracted great attention in recent years owing to their polarity, basicity, and ability to coordinate metal ions. Herein, three NCMPs, structurally close to polyaniline, were facilely synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization between multiconnected aniline precursors. The NCMPs with high N content (11.84 wt %), intrinsic ultramicroporosity (<1 nm), and moderate surface area (485 m2 g–1) show wide-ranging adsorption functionality, e.g., CO2 uptake (11 wt %) and CO2-selectivity over N2 (360, 1 bar), 1.0 wt % H2 storage, as well as 215 wt % iodine vapor uptake at ambient pressure. Moreover, these NCMPs act as support for palladium catalysts and can maintain >94% activity in Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions after six continuous runs.Keywords: catalysis; conjugated microporous polymers; gas storage; polyaniline networks; synthesis;

Conducting poly(2-aminothiazole) (PAT) was simply green synthesized by a chemical oxidation method using 2-aminothiazole as the monomer and copper chloride as the oxidant in aqueous solution. The effects of reaction time and oxidant/monomer molar ratio on the polymerization yield were investigated. The PATs were characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, UV–vis, gel permeation chromatograms (GPC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A series of adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate the adsorption properties of PAT for different heavy metals ions. The results suggested that the PAT possessed much better adsorption capability for Hg(II) than other metal ions. The effects of pH, contact time, and adsorption temperature on the adsorption of Hg(II) were evacuated. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained was 325.7 mg/g at 308 K from the Langmuir model. The adsorption mechanism was studied by FT-IR, UV–vis, and XPS. The polymer could be further regenerated through desorption of Hg(II) using HNO3 or HCl eluent.

The effective and safe capture and storage of radioactive iodine (129I or 131I) is of significant importance during nuclear waste storage and nuclear energy generation. Here we present detailed evidence of highly efficient and reversible iodine capture in hexaphenylbenzene-based conjugated microporous polymers (HCMPs), synthesized via Buchwald–Hartwig (BH) cross-coupling of a hexakis(4-bromophenyl)benzene (HBB) core and aryl diamine linkers. The HCMPs present moderate surface areas up to 430 m2 g–1, with narrow pore size distribution and uniform ultramicropore sizes of less than 1 nm. Porous properties are controlled by the strut lengths and rigidities of linkers, while porosity and uptake properties can be tuned by changing the oxidation state of the HCMPs. The presence of a high number of amine functional groups combined with microporosity provides the HCMPs with extremely high iodine affinity with uptake capacities up to 336 wt %, which is to the best of our knowledge the highest reported to date. Two ways to release the adsorbed iodine were explored: either slow release into ethanol or quick release upon heating (with a high degree of control). Spectral studies indicate that the combination of microporosity, amine functionality, and abundant π-electrons ensured well-defined host–guest interactions and controlled uptake of iodine. In addition, the HCMPs could be recycled while maintaining 90% iodine uptake capacity (up to 295%). We envisage wider application of these materials in the facile uptake and removal of unwanted oxidants from the environment.

Poly(1-amino-5-chloroanthraquinone) (PACA) nanofibrils were applied as new nano-adsorbents for heavy metal removal from aqueous solutions. Adsorption properties including adsorption capacity, selectivity, kinetics, mechanism, and isotherm of PACA nanofibrils were studied in detail. The competitive adsorption of the nanofibrils for Pb(II) and Cr(III) in binary mixture systems was investigated. The results showed that Pb(II) and Cr(III) were adsorbed preferentially over the other metal ions including Hg(II), Cr(VI), Zn(II), Cd(II), Fe(III) and Cu(II), under competitive conditions. Kinetic data indicated that the adsorption process of PACA nanofibrils for Pb(II) and Cr(III) achieved equilibrium within 2 h following a pseudo-second-order rate equation and exhibiting a three-stage intraparticle diffusion mode. The adsorption mechanism of PACA nanofibrils for Pb(II) and Cr(III) was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The adsorption isotherms of Pb(II) and Cr(III) fitted well with the Langmuir model, exhibiting superb adsorption capacity of 4.27 and 4.22 mmol of metal per gram of adsorbent, respectively. Furthermore, adsorption–desorption experiments demonstrated that the PACA nano-adsorbents could be easily recycled without considerable changes in the adsorption capacity.