Microporous organic polymers synthesized by self-condensation of aromatic hydroxymethyl monomers

Abstract

Two hypercross-linked polymer networks have been synthesized by the self-condensation of bishydroxymethyl monomer, 1,4-benzenedimethanol (BDM), and monohydroxymethyl compound, benzyl alcohol (BA). This is different from the previous reports where multifunctional monomers or cross-linkers are crucial for constructing the porous polymer networks. N₂ sorption isotherms for the polymers show that both materials are predominantly microporous with Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface areas of 847 m² g⁻¹ for HCP–BDM and 742 m² g⁻¹ for HCP–BA. A network based on BA can also store a significant amount of CO₂ (8.46 wt%) and H₂ (0.97 wt%) at 1.0 bar, and at 273 K and 77 K respectively, despite its relatively modest surface area. Based on these results, this study opens up the possibility of synthesizing porous materials using monofunctional monomers.