Inexpensive polyphenylene network polymers with enhanced microporosity

Greatly enhanced microporosity is obtained for the amorphous porous polymers produced from the AlCl3-mediated coupling of aromatic hydrocarbons by using dichloromethane as the reaction solvent. A polymer of average BET surface area = 2435 m2 g−1 was obtained reproducibly from 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene with the additional porosity being provided as ultramicroporosity as demonstrated by very high CO2 adsorption at 273 K/1 bar.