Porous organic polymers based upon diamondoid network structures with polyaromatic struts provide a robust, high-surface area platform wherein chemical functionalization can enable a wide range of potential applications.  Efficient methods have been developed for the synthesis of variants of these materials in which biphenyl or terphenyl struts are functionalized with a variety of acid groups, including ammonium chloride, carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, and phosphonic acid.  By adjusting the degree of network interpenetration in the resulting structures, densely acid functionalized pores of differing sizes can be achieved, leading to materials exhibiting exceptional performance for the removal of ammonia down to ppm levels from hazardous gas streams.  Polymers of this type have also been shown to be effective for the selective, high-capacity separation of lanthanide and actinide metal ions from aqueous solutions, as required in the treatment of radioactive waste.  Further, dense functionalization of one such material with thioether moeities was found to enable the highly selective capture of copper from aqueous solutions, facilitating development of a method for detecting aberrantly high levels in urine or blood, as desired for the diagnosis of Wilson’s disease.  Finally, the substitution of quaternary carbon centers in related polymers with anionic quaternary boron centers has been shown to give rise to anionic framework materials that can serve as single-ion conductors with transference numbers near unity and conductivity values sufficient for utilization in lithium batteries.

Densely-functionalized porous polymers for ammonia capture, metal ion separations, and battery applications

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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