A polymer analogous reaction for the formation of imidazolium and NHC based porous polymer networksElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: C, H, N elemental composition of the polymer networks. Fig. S1 and S2 according to "figure captions". See DOI: 10.1039/c2py20947k

A polymer analogous reaction was carried out to generate a porous polymeric network with N -heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) in the polymer backbone. Using a stepwise approach, first a polyimine network is formed by polymerization of the tetrafunctional amine tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane. This polyimine network is converted in the second step into polyimidazolium chloride and finally to a polyNHC network. Furthermore a porous Cu( ii )-coordinated polyNHC network can be generated. Supercritical drying generates polymer networks with high permanent surface areas and porosities which can be applied for different catalytic reactions. The catalytic properties were demonstrated for example in the activation of CO 2 or in the deoxygenation of sulfoxides to the corresponding sulfides. A polymer analogous reaction for the formation of imidazolium and NHC based porous polymer networks.