Construction of Hybrid Porous Materials from Cubic Octavinylsilsesquioxane through Friedel-Crafts Reaction Using Tetraphenylsilane as a Concentrative Crosslinker

A series of novel hybrid porous polymers (HPPs), derived from cubic octavinylsilsesquioxane (OVS; [(C2H3SiO1.5)8]) and tetraphenylsilane (TPS), were successfully synthesized through Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction. The porosities of the HPPs could be tuned by modulating the molar ratio of OVS and TPS. The HPPs showed high porosity, with Brunauer–Emmett–Teller specific surface areas of 518–989 m2 g–1, and total pore volumes of 0.35–0.76 cm3 g–1, as well as narrow pore‐size distributions. For gas sorption application, HPP‐5 possessed a hydrogen uptake of 0.80 wt.‐% at 760 Torr/77 K and a carbon dioxide uptake of 3.31 wt.‐% at 760 Torr/298 K. Tetraphenylsilane was used as a concentrative crosslinker to react with octavinylsilsesquioxane through Friedel–Crafts reaction to prepare hybrid porous materials with tunable porosity. These materials are promising candidates for storing hydrogen and carbon dioxide.