The spirobifluorene-based fluorescent conjugated microporous polymers for reversible adsorbing iodine, fluorescent sensing iodine and nitroaromatic compounds

[Display omitted] •The CMPs possess high BET surface area, can both adsorb and fluorescent sense iodine.•The both CMPs show excellent efficient absorption performance for iodine vapor up to 4.15 and 3.65 g g−1.•TS-TAD and TS-TADP exhibits high sensitivity to I2, o-NP, and PA via fluorescence quenching. Two new spirobifluorene-based conjugated microporous polymers, TS-TAD and TS-TADP, were constructed via Friedel-Crafts coupling reactions. TS-TAD and TS-TADP possess high BET surface area of 828 and 783 m2 g−1, large pore volume of 1.51 and 0.54 cm3 g−1, good stability, and display excellent guest uptake of 4.15 and 3.65 g g−1 in iodine vapour as well as reversible adsorption of iodine in solution. The specific surface areas of CMPs were increased by the introduction of bispirofluorene rings compared with the corresponding parent polymers. TS-TAD has a similar structure to TS-TADP, but possesses larger specific surface area and pore values than TS-TADP, hence, TS-TAD has a higher adsorption capacity for iodine than TS-TADP. Moreover, the adsorption rate of TS-TAD is slower than that of TS-TADP in I2 vapor, while it is faster than that of TS-TADP in cyclohexane solution. We also highlight that the both resulting CMPs exhibit outstanding performance for fluorescent sensing to iodine and nitroaromatic compounds, thus making the resulting CMPs ideal absorbent materials for reversible iodine capture, sensing iodine and nitroaromatic compounds to address environmental issues.