Silsesquioxane-based triphenylamine functionalized porous polymer for CO2, I2 capture and nitro-aromatics detection

Abstract A novel triphenylamine-functionalized silsesquioxane monomer (OTS) is synthesized by Heck coupling reaction involving octavinylsilsesquioxane (OVS) and (4-bromophenyl)diphenylamine as the substrates. Subsequently, OTS is used as the precursor to prepare a multifunctional hybrid porous polymer (HLPP-OTS) via Scholl coupling reaction in the presence of AlCl3. HLPP-OTS possesses high surface area of 814 m2 g−1 and hierarchical microporous/mesoporous structure. The polymer shows CO2 adsorption capacity of 8.04 wt% (1.83 mmol g−1) at 273.0 K/101 kPa as well as high I2 uptake of 406 wt% in vapor and 468 mg g−1 in solution. The polymer also exhibits excellent luminescence property and acts as a sensitive chemo-sensor to detect explosives with high sensitivity towards 5-Nitrosalicylaldehyde (KSV = 36560 M−1).