Fluorescent porous organic polymers

Porous organic polymers (POPs), which are built from pure organic building blocks through strong covalent bonds, are intriguing platforms with multiple functionalities. More recently, fluorescent POPs have drawn intensive attention due to their great potential in sensing and imaging. The versatility of design and synthesis enables the facile introduction of desired functional groups into the pores which help in achieving controllable interactions between POPs and analytes like metal ions, organic explosives, fullerene derivatives or biomolecules. The current research in these fields includes the study of design principles, synthesis strategy and assembly, pore engineering, fluorescence properties and applications. This review deals with this emerging field and summarizes the research progress in the design, assembly and relevant applications of fluorescent POPs, focusing on the molecular design, pore engineering, structure-fluorescence property relationship, and also the future prospects.