Task-specific synthesis of cost-effective electron-rich thiophene-based hypercrosslinked polymer with perylene for efficient iodine capture

An electron-rich thiophene-based hypercrosslinked polymer knitting with perylene moieties was obtained in the presence of anhydrous ferric chloride. The resultant polymer possessed a specific surface area of 612.83 m(2) g(-1) and high thermal stability. Taking advantage of electron-rich structure and microporosity as well as high surface area, the material showed high iodine vapor uptake capacity up to 360 wt%. The performance was 13-fold higher than that of the representative porous silver-based zeolite mordenite and was the highest value among the reported thiophene-based porous organic polymers. X-ray photoelectron spectrometer and Raman analysis results demonstrated that the form of captured iodine was polyiodide anions. We envisage practical application of such promising and cost-effective materials in the field of iodine capture.