Exploring the effect of the structural rigidity of selected
building
blocks on the resultant porosity of the desired polymers is crucial
for the bottom-up design of hyper-cross-linked polymers. Herein, several
novel polymers, based on two series building blocks with stepwise
fine-tuned rigidity, were constructed by the low-cost solvent knitting
method. Significantly, the porosity of these polymers is highly consistent
with the structural rigidity of the basic building blocks, dramatically
enhanced from a poor porous state to a micropore-rich framework, with
an increase in BET surface areas from 248 to 1276 m2 g–1 for the HCPs based on monomers containing double
benzene rings and from 37 to 2368 m2 g–1 for tetraphenyl-like monomer-based HCPs. The best performances,
especially concerning methane adsorption capacity, are reached for
the rigid 9,9′-spirobifluorene (SBF)-based HCP-SBF framework
and flexible tetraphenylmethane (TPM)-based HCP-TPM, showing a 5–100
bar working capacity of 206 cm3 (STP: 273 K, 1 atm) cm–3 (0.296 g g–1) and 199 cm3 (STP) cm–3 (0.112 g g–1) at
273 K, respectively. The bottom-up-designed HCPs with engineered porosity
are expected to become novel candidates for onboard methane storage.