Color tunable porous organic polymer luminescent probes for selective sensing of metal ions and nitroaromatic explosives

We adopt 1,3,6,8-tetrabromopyrene (TBP) and 1,3,5-tris(4-bromophenyl)benzene (TBB) as double monomers to synthesize a series of porous covalent organic polymers (COPs) using the Ni-catalyzed Yamamoto reaction. By manipulating the reactive ratios of two monomers, we successfully achieve the color tailoring of the resultant COP samples. Interestingly, the emission peaks of these porous COP samples cover a wide color range from 533 up to 815 nm, which is the first near-infrared luminescent porous organic material. Further study indicates that these porous COPs can serve as luminescent sensors for highly sensitive and selective sensing of nitroaromatic explosives and metal ions. These materials might also find more applications in photocatalysis, organic electronics and medical imaging.