Organic acids can crosslink poly(ionic liquid)s into mesoporous polyelectrolyte complexes

A template-free method was introduced to prepare mesoporous poly(ionic liquid) complexes by employing a variety of multivalent carboxylic acids to electrostatically crosslink imidazolium-based poly(ionic liquid)s in diethyl ether. The as-synthesized porous networks exhibit good structural stability and large specific surface area up to 290 m(2) g(-1). Their performance in dye removal from ethanol was demonstrated to be superior to activated carbon and mesoporous silica.