A simple and cost-effective synthesis of ionic porous organic polymers with excellent porosity for high iodine capture

Porous organic polymers (POPs) are excellent adsorbent candidates owing to their high porosity, permanent pore, and well-designed structure. Ionic porous organic polymers (i-POPs) are a special type of POPs, which can greatly improve the capacity of guest molecules through electrostatic interactions. However, most reported i-POPs have shortcomings such as low porosity and high-cost synthesis procedure. With these considerations in mind, several ionic porous organic polymers (i-POP-BP-BPTMs) have been successfully designed and synthesized by using the commercial and simple-synthesized building units via a simple and cost-effective process. i-POP-BP-BPTMs indicated excellent porosity including the highest BET surface area (1491–1753 m2 g−1) and the best pore volume (2.19–2.94 cm3 g−1) among most reported ionic POPs. Interestingly, i-POP-BP-BPTM was found to be highly effective in iodine vapor capture up to 415 wt%, which is higher than the value of all reported ionic POPs. These results offer a new way to design and construct functional ionic POPs. [Display omitted] •The i-POPs have been synthesized via a simple and cost-effective process.•The i-POPs showed the highest BET surface area and pore volume.•The i-POPs exhibited the best iodine uptake value among all reported ionic POPs.•The capture process could be efficiently recycled and reused for five cycles.