Postfunctionalization of Porous Organic Polymers Based on Friedel-Crafts Acylation for CO2 and Hg2+ Capture

Investigation into the Synthetic Strategies of Melamine-Based Porous Polymeric Materials: A Bibliometric Analysis

Recent years have seen the rapid development of melamine-based porous organic polymers, a new category of porous material. This review paper comprehensively describes the progress and trends of melamine-based porous organic polymers by using bibliometric analysis. A total of 1397 publications published over the previous 15 years were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Also, cooperation between countries and affiliations and keyword co-occurrence were assessed with the aid of VOS viewer software 1.6.20. The findings suggested that this field of study is now rapidly evolving. From 41 articles in 2009 to 180 articles in 2022, the number of published articles has increased significantly. China was the most productive nation, publishing 863 articles with 61.78% contribution. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the most productive organization, and Chinese author Qiang Li was the most productive individual. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified major research hotspots, including the design of high-surface-area materials for adsorption, functionalization strategies to enhance materials' performance, and novel synthesis routes for structural control. Furthermore, this review systematically categorizes synthetic strategies based on the linkage structures between melamine and other building blocks, providing insights into state-of-the-art advancements and future research directions in the field.

Bifunctional adsorbents based on hyper-cross-linked polymers containing carbonyl and amine species for the efficient removal of diclofenac from water in a broad pH range

Development of new adsorbents for the efficient removal of organic pollutants from water is one of the most emerging environmental issues. Current studies in this field focus on improving the adsorption capacity of various materials and/or broadening the pH range in which the adsorbents can efficiently remove target pollutants. In this study, we designed bifunctional hyper-cross-linked polymers (HCPs) containing both carbonyl and amine species to investigate the effect of amine functional groups on the efficiency of adsorptive removal of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) from water. We revealed that post-synthesis functionalization of carbonyl-rich HCPs with amine species does not have a significant impact on the adsorption capacity of these polymers under strongly acidic conditions (pH < 4; qe ∼ 544 mg/g), but significantly extends the pH range in which bifunctional polymers can adsorb diclofenac. For example, at native pH (pH ∼ 6), bifunctional HCP-based adsorbents exhibited an adsorption capacity approximately 8 times higher than that of pristine materials (qe = 191 vs. 24 mg/g, respectively). Furthermore, it was revealed that the adsorbents designed in this study can efficiently remove diclofenac from complex water matrices and exhibit high stability in several adsorption-desorption cycles. Moreover, we demonstrated that selecting a cross-linker with a longer chain results in a polymer with a lower surface area and smaller average pore size, while enabling higher efficiency in amine incorporation via post-synthesis functionalization. This latter feature was crucial for ensuring the high adsorption capacity of HCP-based adsorbents in the removal of NSAID at neutral pH.

Melamine-Copolymerization Strategy Engineered Fluorinated Polyimides for Membrane-Based Sour Natural Gas Separation

Membrane-based gas separation provides an energy-efficient approach for the simultaneous CO2 and H2S removal from sour natural gas. The fluorinated polyimide (PI) membranes exhibited a promising balance between permeability and permselectivity for sour natural gas separation. To further improve the separation efficiency of fluorinated PI membranes, a melamine-copolymerization synthetic approach is devised that aims to incorporate melamine motifs with high sour gas affinity into the structure of the PI membranes. The fluorinated copolyimide membranes that are structurally engineered exhibited excellent solution-processability and enhanced sweet-mixed gas selectivity compared to their original PI membranes. Additionally, under a five-component sour mixed-gas feed, these melamine-copolymerized fluorinated PI membranes provided superior combined H2S and CO2 removal efficiency in comparison to conventional glassy polymer membranes. The melamine-copolymerization strategy provides an easily operable and generally effective approach to developing performance-enhancing PI membranes for sour natural gas separation.

β-Ketoenamine Porous Organic Polymers for High-Efficiency Carbon Dioxide Adsorption and Separation

To mitigate the greenhouse effect, a number of porous organic polymers (POPs) has been developed for carbon capture. Considering the permanent quadrupole of symmetrical CO2 molecules, the integration of electron-rich groups into POPs is a feasible way to enhance the dipole-quadrupole interactions between host and guest. To comprehensively explore the effect of pore environment, including specific surface area, pore size, and number of heteroatoms, on carbon dioxide adsorption capacity, we synthesized a series of microporous POPs with different content of β-ketoenamine structures via Schiff-base condensation reactions. These materials exhibit high BET specific surface areas, high stability, and excellent CO2 adsorption capacity. It is worth mentioning that the CO2 adsorption capacity and CO2/N2 selectivity of TAPPy-TFP reaches 3.87 mmol g-1 and 27. This work demonstrates that the introduction of β-ketoenamine sites directly through condensation reaction is an effective strategy to improve the carbon dioxide adsorption performance of carbon dioxide.

Site-Selective Zn-Metalation in Poly-Triphenyl Amine-based Porous Organic Polymer for Solid-Gas Phase CO2 Photoreduction

Harvesting solar energy to produce value-added chemicals from carbon dioxide (CO2) presents a promising route for addressing the complexities of sustainable energy systems and environmental issues. In this context, the development of metal-coordinated porous organic polymers (POPs) offers a vital avenue for improving the photocatalytic performance of organic motifs. The current study presents a metal-integrated photocatalytic system (namely, Zn@BP-POP) developed via a one-pot Friedel-Crafts (F.C.) acylation strategy, for solid-gas phase photochemical CO2 reduction to CO (CO2RR). The postsynthetic incorporation of metal (Zn) active sites on the host polymeric backbone of BP-POP significantly influences the catalytic activity. Notably, Zn@BP-POP demonstrates good photocatalytic performance in the absence of any cocatalyst and photosensitizer yielding CO while impeding the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from water. The experimental findings collectively propose that the observed catalytic activity and selectivity arise from the synergistic interplay between the singular zinc catalytic centers and the light-harvesting capacity of the highly conjugated polymeric backbone. Further, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) analysis has significantly highlighted the prominent role played by the ZnN2O4 single sites in the polymeric framework for activating the gaseous CO2 molecules. Further, time-dependent density functional theory (DFT) analysis also reveals the thermodynamic feasibility of CO2RR over HER under optimized reaction conditions. This work cumulatively presents an effective strategy to demonstrate the importance of metal-active sites and effectively establish their structure-activity relationship during photocatalysis.

Pyrolysis Free Out-of-Plane Co-Single Atomic Sites in Porous Organic Photopolymer Stimulates Solar-Powered CO2 Fixation

Herein, a facile strategy is illustrated to develop pyrolysis-free out-of-plane coordinated single atomic sites-based M-POP via a one-pot Friedel Craft acylation route followed by a post-synthetic metalation. The optimized geometry of the Co@BiPy-POP clearly reveals the presence of out-of-plane Co-single atomic sites in the porous backbone. This novel photopolymer Co@BiPy-POP shows extensive π-conjugations followed by impressive light harvesting ability and is utilized for photochemical CO2 fixation to value-added chemicals. A remarkable conversion of styrene epoxide (STE) to styrene carbonate (STC) (≈98%) is obtained under optimized photocatalytic conditions in the existence of promoter tert-butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB). Synchrotron-based X-ray adsorption spectroscopy (XAS) analysis reveals the single atom coordination sites along with the metal (Co) oxidation number of +2.16 in the porous network. Moreover, in situ diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) investigations provide valuable information on the evolution of key reaction intermediates. Comprehensivecomputational analysis also helps to understand the overall mechanistic pathway along with the interaction between the photocatalyst and reactants. Overall, this study presents a new concept of fabricating porous photopolymers based on a pyrolysis-free out-of-plane-coordination strategy and further explores the role of single atomic sites in carrying out feasible CO2 fixation reactions.

Novel Carbazole-Based Porous Organic Polymer for Efficient Iodine Capture and Rhodamine B Adsorption

A new porous organic polymer (CTF-CAR), which takes carbazole as the electron-rich center unit and thiophenes as the auxiliary group, has been synthesized through catalyst-free Schiff-base polymerization. At the same time, the structure, thermal stability, morphology, and other basic properties of the polymer were analyzed by IR, NMR, TGA, and SEM. Then, CTF-CAR was applied to iodine capture and rhodamine B adsorption. Due to its strong electron donor ability and abundant heteroatom binding sites, which have a positive effect on the interaction between the polymer network and adsorbates, CTF-CAR exhibits high uptake capacities for iodine vapor and rhodamine B as 2.86 g g-1 and 199.7 mg g-1, respectively. The recyclability test also confirmed that it has good reusability. We found that this low-cost and catalyst-free synthetic porous organic polymer has great potential for the treatment of polluted water and iodine capture.

Natural phenol-inspired porous polymers for efficient removal of tetracycline: Experimental and engineering analysis

Efficient and feasible removal of trace antibiotics from wastewater is extremely important due to its environmental persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity, but still remains a huge challenge. Herein, three natural phenol-inspired porous organic polymers were fabricated from natural phenolic-derived monomers (p-hydroxy benzaldehyde, 2,4-dihydroxy benzaldehyde and 2,4,6-trihydroxy benzaldehyde) and melamine via polycondensation reaction. Characterization highlighted that the increasing contents of hydroxyl groups in monomers induced an increase of the polymer total porosity and promoted the formation of a highly microporous structure. With mesopore-dominated pore (average pore diameter 9.6 nm) and large pore volume (1.78 cm³/g), p-hydroxy benzaldehyde-based porous polymer (1-HBPP) exhibited ultra-high maximum adsorption capacity (q_max) of 697.6 mg/g for tetracycline (TC) antibiotic. Meanwhile, the porous networks and plentiful active sites of 1-HBPP enabled fast adsorption kinetics (within 10 min) for TC removal, which could be well described by the pseudo-second-order model. Dynamic adsorption studies showed that 1-HBPP could be used in fixed-bed adsorption column (FBAC) with high removal efficiency (breakthrough volume per unit mass, 13.2 L/g) and dynamic adsorption capacity (201.6 mg/g), which were much higher than other reported adsorbents. The breakthrough curves both well matched with Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models in FBAC treatment. Moreover, removal mechanism analysis affirmed that pore-filling, hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions and π-π stacking interactions were main driving forces for TC adsorption. The prepared natural phenol-inspired porous adsorbents show great potential in antibiotics removal from wastewater, and this strategy would promote the sustainable and high-value utilization of natural phenolic compounds.

Sensitive determination of auxins in environmental water and peach beverage by hyper crosslinked polymer-based solid-phase extraction with high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection

As plant regulators, auxins can promote plant growth. However, they have toxicity and may cause harm to humans. Due to their low concentrations in food sample matrices, the enrichment and analysis of trace auxins in food samples is a challenging work. In this work, a series of hyper crosslinked polymers (HCPs) were synthesized by Friedel-Crafts acylation to extract four auxins (indole-3-acetic acid, indole-3-propionic acid, indole-3-butyric acid and 1-naphthylacetic acid). Among these HCPs, the QP-TC-HCP, synthesized from p-quaterphenyl (QP) and terephthaloyl chloride (TC), showed the best adsorption performance for the auxins. It was then applied as the adsorbent for the solid-phase extraction of the auxins from environmental water and peach beverage samples, followed by high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection were 3.0-12.0 pg mL^-1 for environmental water and 18.0-36.0 pg mL^-1 for peach beverage sample. The method recoveries of the auxins for the spiked samples were in the range of 85.0-110.0%. The established method provided an alternative approach for the determination of auxins in food samples. In addition, different types of organic compounds were tested for the extraction by the QP-TC-HCP to assess its application potential and adsorption mechanism. It was concluded that the QP-TC-HCP had better extraction performance for the compounds with certain hydrophilicity and more hydrogen bonding sites.

Biofiber waste derived zwitterionic and photocatalytic dye adsorbent: Switchable selectivity, in-situ degradation and multi-tasking application

Dye wastewater and discarded biofiber have brought huge pressure to sustainable developments of ecology and economy. By utilizing dopamine chemistry and benzophenone mediated "grafting onto" atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), this work reported a biomass adsorbent containing discarded wool substrate, photocatalytic PDA coating and zwitterionic polymer brushes for dyes removal. The grafted zwitterionic polymer brushes impart the material with not only high adsorption capacity and rapid adsorption rate, but also switchable adsorption selectivity and pH-controlled regeneration capability. Benefiting from such outstanding adsorption performance and excellent free-standing property, the adsorbent could fulfill diversified needs of both static and dynamic adsorptions. Under daylight, the constructed photocatalytic PDA coating could in-situ degrade the captured pollutant, thus achieving consecutive adsorption-degradation-regeneration utilization. Furthermore, through simple dip-coating and cleaner UV-irradiation techniques, the preparation process could be scaled up. This work contributes to both the upcycling of discarded biofiber waste and the development of advanced biomass adsorbent.

A facile one-pot preparation of porphyrin-based microporous organic polymers for adsorption of carbon dioxide, ethane, and methane

Achieving a cost-effective preparation of 3D porphyrin-based microporous organic polymers (PMOPs) for the adsorption and separation of carbon dioxide (CO2), ethane (C2H6), and methane (CH4) remains difficult.

Porosity Design on Conjugated Microporous Poly(Aniline)S for Exceptional Mercury(II) Removal

The use of conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) in practical wastewater treatment demands further design on the pore structure, otherwise their adsorption capacities toward heavy-metal ions were moderate. Here, we report a rational design approach, which produces hybrid molecular pores in conjugated microporous poly(aniline)s (CMPAs) for mercury removal. It is achieved through a delicate interval introduction of linkers with differential molecular lengths during polymerization, acquiring both diffusion channels and storage pores for radical enhancement of mass transfer and adsorption storage. The resulting CMPA-M featured a large adsorption capacity of 975 mg g^-1 and rapid kinetics that could remove 94.8% of 50 mg g^-1 of mercury(II) within a very short contact time of 48 s, with a promising initial adsorption rate h as high as 113 mg g^-1 min^-1, which was 2.54-fold larger in the adsorption capacity and 45.2-fold faster in the adsorption efficiency compared with the undeveloped CMPAs. More importantly, our CMPA-M-2, with robust stability and easy reusability, was able to scavenge over 99.9% of mercury(II) from the actual wastewater in a harsh condition with a very low pH of 0.77, extremely high salinity of 53,157 mg L^-1, and complex impurities, featuring exceptional selectivity that allows us to extract and recycle a high purity of 99.1% of mercury from the wastewater. These outcomes demonstrate the unprecedented potential of CMPs for environmental remediation and real-world mercury extraction and present benchmarks for CMP-based mercury adsorbents.

Ratiometric fluorescent probe for the on-site monitoring of coexisted Hg2+ and F- in sequence

The monitoring of mercury and fluoride ions (Hg²⁺ and F^-) has aroused wide concerns owing to the high toxicity of Hg²⁺ and the duplicitous nature of F^- to human health. As far as we known, more than 100 million people in poverty-stricken areas are still at high risk of being over-exposed to Hg²⁺ and F^- via drinking water. Simple and cost-effective luminescent methods are highly promising for on-site water monitoring in rural areas. However, the development of multipurpose luminescent probes that are accurate and sensitive remains challenging. Herein, a new strategy for rationally designing a multipurpose ratiometric probe is present. The obtained probe is consisted of two emission units with energy transfer between them, which exhibit high coordination affinities to the two coexisted toxic targets (Hg²⁺ and F^-), respectively. Thus, two distinct routes for efficiently modulating the energy transfer in the probe are present to trigger the responses to the two targets in sequence. By detecting the shift of the emission color with a smartphone, an on-site water monitoring method is successfully established with the detection limits as low as 2.7 nM for Hg²⁺ and 1.9 μM for F^-. The present study can expend the toolbox for water monitoring in rural regions.

Design and construction of a hydrophilic coating on macroporous adsorbent resins for enrichment of glycopeptides

Although macroporous adsorbent resins (MARs) have been commercialized and widely applied in industrial and life fields, it is still of necessity to develop simple approaches to functionalize MARs. One of the most widely used methods to realize excellent fouling resistance performance is surface modification of hydrophilic polymers on substrates to fabricate an anti-biofouling coating. Herein, three kinds of hydrophilic poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) MAR were designed and facilely prepared by coating a layer of porous organic polymers (POPs) via either an epoxy-amine ring-opening polymerization or amine-aldehyde condensation reaction using isophthalaldehyde (IPA), 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane (cyclen), melamine and 1,3,5-triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC) as precursors. By taking advantage of their merits, such as large surface area, excellent hydrophilicity and unbiased affinity toward all types of glycopeptide, three functionalized hydrophilic MARs were successfully applied to capture glycopeptides from complex samples as hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) sorbents. A total of 694 N-glycopeptides and 372 N-glycosylation sites were identified from 2 μL of human serum digest with poly(TC)@MAR, which were not only more than those of poly(MT)@MAR (286 N-glycosylation sites and 547 N-glycopeptides) and poly(IM)@MAR (669 N-glycopeptides and 355 N-glycosylation sites), but also more than those of other reported HILIC materials. This work provided a new and simple way to synthesize enrichment materials for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis of glycoproteomes.

[Preparation of melamine-functionalized porous organic polymer and its adsorption properties for methyl orange]

In this work, a polymer precursor was first synthesized using p-terphenyl (TP) and terephthaloyl chloride (TC) as monomers. Then, cross-linking was realized by means of a Schiff base reaction with melamine (MA) as a modifier to obtain an amine-functionalized porous organic polymer TP-TC-MA. The synthesized polymers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and point of zero charge (pH_pzc) measurements, as well as on the basis of nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. Adsorption experiments were carried out to evaluate the adsorption properties of TP-TC-MA for methyl orange (MO), a typical anionic azo dye that has widespread industrial application. The amount of MO adsorbed on TP-TC-MA was evaluated by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy at a wavelength of 463 nm. Microscopic analysis revealed that the as-synthesized polymer had an aggregated particle-shaped structure. XRD spectra confirmed that TP-TC-MA was an amorphous polymer, consistent with the results of high-resolution TEM experiments. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area and total pore volume of TP-TC-MA were determined as 708.5 m ²/g and 0.556 cm³/g, respectively. The measured pH_pzc of TP-TC-MA was 4.0, probably because of the abundant nitrogen-containing groups provided by MA. The factors affecting adsorption, such as pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial pollutant concentration, and ionic strength, were investigated. Because of the protonation of the N-atom in TP-TC-MA, the pH had a strong impact on the adsorption of MO. The removal efficiency could be maximized at the optimized pH of 3.0. The adsorption equilibrium isotherm, measured at 25 ℃ and a concentration of 50-500 mg/L, showed that the MO adsorption over TP-TC-MA followed the Langmuir isotherm, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 156.3 mg/g. The modeling of the experimental adsorption data was consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, which indicated fast adsorption and chemisorption as the dominant mechanism. With increasing ionic strength, the adsorption of MO slightly decreased, suggesting a partial antagonistic ion effect. Results of the selectivity study revealed that TP-TC-MA was more selective toward MO than methylene blue (MB), which indicated that electrostatic interactions played a significant role during the adsorption progress. Five adsorption-desorption cycles showed that TP-TC-MA could be regenerated without significant deterioration of its adsorption efficiency, indicating that it has good stability and reusability. The observed adsorption performance indicated that this MA-modified porous organic polymer offers prospects for further research and application in the treatment of dye-containing wastewaters.

Preparation of hyper-cross-linked hydroxylated polystyrene for adsorptive removal of methylene blue

A series of hydroxylated polystyrene (PS-OH) resins were prepared from macroporous poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) by nitration, reductive amination, diazotation and hydrolysis in sequence, and then a series of hyper-cross-linked hydroxylated polystyrene (HCPS-OH) resins were successfully prepared from the PS-OH resins by the Friedel–Crafts post-cross-linking using dichloromethane as an external cross-linker. Benefiting from the synthetic protocol, the HCPS-OH resins showed better adsorption performance for methylene blue in aqueous solution as compared with the corresponding PS-OH resins. HCPS-OH-4, one of the fabricated HCPS-OH resins which had the hydroxyl content of 5.0 mmol g⁻¹ and BET specific surface area of 69.0 m² g⁻¹, showed the highest adsorption capacity and selectivity for methylene blue. Higher temperature, higher pH, and higher ionic strength were beneficial to adsorption of methylene blue from aqueous solution. HCPS-OH-4 could be regenerated by treatment with 1.0 M HCl methanol solution and deionized water sequentially. Moreover, HCPS-OH-4 retained good adsorption performance for methylene blue even after 5 cycles of adsorption and regeneration, which implied that it was a good candidate for adsorptive removal of methylene blue dye in waste water.

This study presents the preparation of hyper-cross-linked hydroxylated polystyrene (HCPS-OH) resins using dichloromethane as an external cross-linker for the adsorption of methylene blue.