A ferrocene-containing porous organic polymer linked by tetrahedral silicon-centered units for gas sorption

A novel ferrocene-containing porous organic polymer (FPOP) has been prepared by Sonogashira-Hagihara coupling reaction of 1,1′-dibromoferrocene and tetrakis(4-ethynylphenyl)silane. Compared with other polymers, the resulting polymer possesses excellent thermal stability with the decomposition temperature of 415°C and high porosity with Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 542 m2 g−1 as measured by nitrogen adsorption-desoprtion isotherm at 77 K. For applications, it shows moderate carbon dioxide uptakes of up to 1.42 mmol g−1 (6.26 wt%) at 273 K/1.0 bar and 0.82 mmol g−1 (3.62 wt%) at 298 K/1.0 bar, and hydrogen capacity of up to 0.45 mmol g−1 (0.91 wt%) at 77 K/1.0 bar, indicating that FPOP might be utilized as a promising candidate for storing carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Although FPOP possesses lower porosity than many porous polymers, the gas capacities are higher or comparable to them, thereby revealing that the incorporation of ferrocene units into the network is an effective strategy to enhance the affinity between the framework and gas.