Based on the concept of function-oriented synthesis, we pertinently developed a series of new functional ionic polymers, which exhibited good catalytic performance, robust constancy, and excellent substrate expansibility for sustainable catalysis of CO2-involved reactions.

Rapid and selective removal of micropollutants from water is important for the reuse of water resources. Despite hollow frameworks with specific functionalized porous walls for the selective adsorption based on a series of interactions, tailoring a stable shape of nanometer-and micrometer-sized architectures for the removal of specific pollutants remains a challenge. Here, exactly controlled sheets, tubes, and spherical frameworks were presented from the crosslinking of supramolecular colloids in polar solvents. The frameworks strongly depended on the architecture of original supramolecular colloids. As the entropy of colloids increased, the initial laminar framework rolled up into hollow tubules, and then further curled into hollow spheres. These shape-persistent frameworks showed unprecedented selectivity as well as specific recognition for the shape of pollutants, thus contributing to efficient pollutant separation.

Despite many cationic nanomaterials that have been developed for efficient adsorption of anionic pollutants, tailoring a stable shape with denser cations on the surface for advanced removal capability remains challenging. Here, a new strategy is presented for fabricating two-dimensional (2D) cationic laminas and their curvature based on cross-linking of 2D supramolecular networks from hydrogen-bonded trimesic amide derivatives. Owing to the distribution of most cations on the surface, two cationic nanostructures from cross-linking of supramolecular networks show fast sorption kinetics for anionic pollutants. Notably, the removal capacity of the capsule-like curvature adsorbent is more than twice that of lamina adsorbent for sufficient space around cationic sites in hollow aperture. Moreover, the capsule-like adsorbent is triggered to open and spontaneously release the adsorbed pollutants upon the addition of halogen anions, which can be recovered by subsequent dialysis. Strategy of a capsule-like pocket with tunable opening−closing will provide a new insight for storage and adsorption.

A tubular catalyst showed fast catalytic kinetics for CO2 conversion with a TON of 2300 and a TOF of up to 173 h−1.