A pillar[5]arene-based 3D polymer network for efficient iodine capture in aqueous solution

Iodine in wastewater can cause environmental pollution that encourages the development of materials for iodine removal. Herein, a novel pillar[5]arene-based 3D polymer network, which is easily constructed via a crosslinking reaction between a pillar[5]arene and DL-dithiothreitol, is applied for efficient iodine removal. Benefitting from fast and simple preparation, this polymer can be obtained on a large scale. UV-vis and Raman analyses demonstrate that the 3D polymer network can efficiently adsorb iodine from water because of diol units and the hydrophobic nature of the pillararene. The structure of the polymer after iodine capture is found to be unchanged, indicating that iodine capture is driven by non-covalent interactions mainly including hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Besides, this polymer is recyclable and can be reused five times with little loss of performance.