Biomass betulin-based porous aromatic frameworks nanomicrospheres as adsorbents for reversible capture of iodine

[Display omitted] •Biomass betulin-based porous aromatic frameworks nanomicrospheres were prepared.•The BEPAFs showed high thermal stability and high specific surface.•The BEPAFs presented a high adsorption capacity of 3.79 g g−1 for iodine vapor.•The adsorption capacity of iodine in cyclohexane by BEPAFs was 389.9 mg g−1. Betulin with a modifiable hydroxyl group and a rigid backbone is a kind of natural triterpene product that extracted from white barked birch bark with up to 30 % of its dry weight. Herin, we prepared a series of betulin-based porous aromatic frameworks (BEPAFs) nanomicrospheres by [Rh(nbd)Cl]2 polymerization or Sonogashira-Hagihara coupling reaction for iodine vapor capture and adsorption. The resulting BEPAFs nanomicrospheres presented perfect thermal stability and high specific surface areas that up to 324.6 m2 g−1, 506.3 m2 g−1 and 320.5 m2 g−1 for BEPAF-1, BEPAF-2 and BEPAF-3, respectively. Based on the above characteristics, the BEPFAs nanomicrospheres showed an excellent iodine capture performance with the volatile iodine capture ability reached 3.79 g g−1 and iodine adsorption in cyclohexane solution up to 389.9 mg g−1. The iodine capture behavior is consistent with the pseudo-second-order model, indicating that the iodine adsorption process of BEPAFs microspheres belongs to multilayer heterogeneous surface chemical adsorption. Furthermore, the BEPFAs nanomicrospheres could maintained 88.26 % of the absorption capacity after four cycles that endow them a great potential in practical application. This research provides a facile synthesis of biomass porous aromatic framework nanomicrospheres adsorbents based on the natural product.