Rapid Adsorption of Indoor Low-Concentration Formaldehyde by β‑Cyclodextrin-Based Porous Organic Polymers

Formaldehyde (HCHO) is one of the most universal and harmful indoor gas pollutants nowadays. Even a very low concentration of HCHO does great harm to human health. Herein, we developed a kind of porous organic polymer (P-CDP) as an adsorbent for the rapid removal of HCHO. The adsorption capacity of HCHO on P-CDP is 2.78 mg g–1 and the average adsorption rate in 10 min is 0.18 mg g–1 min–1 at a HCHO concentration of 1 ppm, which are 4.06 and 9.11 times higher than those of commercial coconut shell activated carbon (ACCO), respectively. The partition coefficient (PC) of P-CDP reaches 0.93 mol kg–1 Pa–1. More importantly, P-CDP shows excellent reusability, with no obvious loss of HCHO uptake after five adsorption–desorption cycles, indicating the good cycling stability of P-CDP. The high adsorption uptake and rapid adsorption rate of P-CDP for HCHO are attributed to the relatively strong electrostatic interactions together with the van der Waals forces between −F and −OH groups on P-CDP and HCHO molecules. This study demonstrates the great potential of P-CDP for practical use in the removal of low-concentration HCHO in indoor environments.