Researchers have devised a simple method for reliably producing nanomaterials that resemble Swiss cheese. The approach needed to generate this porous material might aid in creating more sophisticated materials with applications in photocatalysis and optoelectronics.
Low-density solids containing much space within their main body are known as porous materials. The vast surface area these gaps afford porous materials makes them ideal for adsorbing additional chemicals and serving as an improved catalyst for chemical processes. Due to their high porosity, chemical and thermal durability, and flexibility to modify chemical responses to capture particular target molecules and boost particular processes, porous organic polymers, or POPs, have demonstrated great promise for these applications.
Researchers have shown a straightforward, catalyst-free “one-pot” method to produce the extremely porous POP known as poly(aryl thioether). They have demonstrated that sodium sulfide and perfluorinated aromatics may generate polyarylthioethers easily. Perfluorinated aromatic compounds are linked together by sulfur in poly(aryl thioether)s. The fact that sodium sulfide may interact with perfluorinated aromatic compounds at several distinct atomic locations, resulting in the creation of various structures, makes it difficult to produce the material consistently. The researchers used polycondensation to produce it’s poly(aryl thioether). They demonstrate how bonds may be formed at a specific atom over other potential atoms by carefully controlling the temperature. It stopped random crosslinking and gave the material’s porosity much control.
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