have triggered serious threats to the survival and development of mankind. Consequently, exploring novel materials with task-specific applications is of fundamental importance for the sustainable development of economy and society. The burgeoning progress of nanomaterials in recent years has demonstrated that porosity is one of the essential factors in determining material properties for possible breakthroughs in their applications. Therefore, porous materials are playing important roles in many well-established applications and emerging technologies for challenging social and economic issues due to their intrinsic characteristics of large surface areas, open channels, and the possible control over the pore environment. According to International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the pores of porous materials are classified into three categories by their pore sizes: micropores are smaller than 2 nm, mesopores are in the range of 2-50 nm, and macropores are larger than 50 nm. [1] Their pore walls include the organic skeleton (e.g., porous polymers, organic porous cages, and supramolecular organic frameworks), the inorganic skeleton (e.g., zeolites, porous carbons, and mesoporous silica), and the hybrid skeleton (e.g., metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)).Among the developed porous materials, porous polymers have attracted an increasing level of research interest owing to their potential to integrate the advantages of both porous materials and polymers. [2,3] Table 1 lists the characteristic structural features and properties of porous polymers, and gives a systematic comparison to other typical porous materials, such as zeolites, porous carbons, and MOFs. Porous polymers, zeolites, porous carbons, and MOFs share a number of features such as high permanent porosities, large surface areas, and designable pores and voids. However, they are different in several important aspects. The major advantages of porous polymers over many other porous materials are their chemical diversity and easy processability. Compared to zeolites and porous carbons, the synthesis of porous polymers is generally more versatile and can be approached in a way that conforms to the concept of rational materials design. Similar to MOFs, porous polymers inherit the excellent chemical and physical tunability afforded by the versatility of organic chemistry. Furthermore, Exploring advanced porous materials is of critical importance in the development of science and technology. Porous polymers, being famous for their all-organic components, tailored pore structures, and adjustable chemical components, have attracted an increasing level of research interest in a large number of applications, including gas adsorption/storage, separation, catalysis, environmental remediation, energy, optoelectronics, and health. Recent years have witnessed tremendous research breakthroughs in these fields thanks to the unique pore structures and versatile skeletons of porous polymers. Here, recent milestones in the diverse applications of porous polymers are presented, ...

No abstract

Porous polymers have attracted tremendous interest in lithium–sulfur batteries due to the combination of good physical confinement and chemical immobilization to suppress the polysulfide shuttle. Currently, the development of facile and effective methods for fabrication of porous polymers with hierarchical porous structures, strong polar species, and efficient charge-transfer pathways is significant yet challenging, which is crucial for high-performance sulfur cathodes. Herein, for the first time, we present the successful development of a novel class of advanced hierarchical porous polymer nanosheets (AHPPNs) based on a union of surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization and a cross-linking-induced coassembly strategy. Due to their well-defined nanoarchitectures, AHPPNs are capable of providing a commendable shuttle-suppressing shield for polysulfides via strong chemisorption, hierarchical porous structures for immobilizing sulfur and relieving volume change, and shortened pathways for ions and electrons. Benefiting from these synergistic effects, the lithium–sulfur batteries assembled with S@AHPPNs cathodes exhibit greatly enhanced rate performance and long stable cycle capability.

No abstract

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have been regarded as promising next‐generation energy‐storage devices owing to their inherently high theoretical energy density. Unfortunately, the poor capacity and cycling life caused by severe polysulfide shuttle effect and sluggish redox kinetics in sulfur cathodes greatly impede the practical application of Li–S batteries. Herein, a new class of nanonetwork‐structured carbon decorated with oxygen‐vacancy‐containing cerium oxide nanoparticles (NSC–CeO2−x), in which carbon skeleton is composed of highly conductive carbon nanotube core welded by hybrid carbon shell, has been developed via one‐step heating treatment of hybrid molecular brush and further employed as functional interlayer to modify separator of Li–S battery. Owing to the synergistic effect of the highly active CeO2−x nanoparticles and the three‐dimensional carbon nanonetwork in enhancing the preservation of the soluble polysulfides and boosting the redox kinetics of sulfur species, the NSC–CeO2−x significantly promotes the electrochemical performance of sulfur cathode. As a result, the as‐constructed Li–S batteries exhibit an ultrahigh initial sulfur utilization of 92.9% and an extremely large capacity of 751 mA h g−1 at a high rate of 5 C. Remarkably, a stable capacity of 728 mA h g−1 over 300 cycles at 1 C is also achieved.