Facile conversion of nitrile to amide on polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1)

This paper presents an interesting new development in the area of chemical modification of PIM-1. The amide PIM-1 (named as PIM-CONH2) was synthesized by post-synthesis modification method using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as reagent at room temperature. The protocol enjoys mild reaction conditions, easy work-up procedure and high conversion yield (i.e. nearly 100% of nitrile group converts to corresponding amide group.) C-13 NMR and FT-IR spectra indisputably confirmed that pure PIM-CONH2 was obtained with no traces of nitrile and carboxylic acid groups. The PIM-CONH2 conveys high solubility in polar aprotic solvents such as DMSO, DMF, and NMP. The fully-converted sample PIM-CONH2-24h possessed the apparent BET surface area of 527 m(2) g(-1), which is among the highest ever reported in various post-synthesis modified PIM-1 materials. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.