Porous nanomaterial shows promise for chemical adsorption and catalysis

According to KAUST, the material and the method to create it could help in the development of further advanced materials with applications in photocatalysis and optoelectronics.

Voids give porous materials a large surface area, which is favourable for adsorbing other chemicals and acting as an enhanced catalyst for chemical reactions.

Porous organic polymers (POPs) have shown promise for these applications because of their high porosity and their chemical and thermal stability, plus the flexibility to tailor chemical response to capture specific target molecules and enhance selected reactions.

Cafer Yavuz and colleagues from KAUST, collaborating with co-workers from Korea and the US, have demonstrated a simple “one-pot” catalyst-free process for creating a highly porous POP called poly(aryl thioether).

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“We’ve shown that polyarylthioethers can be produced simply from sodium sulphide and perfluorinated aromatics,” Yavuz said in a statement. “We believe that we have uncovered a powerful strategy that went against common understanding and could be used to build sulphur-based materials in a tuneable fashion.”