Porous Organic Polymers: Promising Testbed for Heterogeneous Reactive Oxygen Species Mediated Photocatalysis and Nonredox CO₂ Fixation

Abstract

Catalysts play a pivotal role in achieving the global need for food and energy. In this context, porous organic polymers (POPs) with high surface area, robust architecture, tunable pore size, and chemical functionalities have emerged as promising testbeds for heterogeneous catalysis. Amorphous POPs having functionalized interconnected hierarchical porous structures activate a diverse range of substrates through covalent/non‐covalent interactions or act as a host matrix to encapsulate catalytically active metal centers. On the other hand, conjugated POPs have been explored for photoinduced chemical transformations. In this personal account, we have delineated the evolution of various POPs and the specific role of pores and pore functionalities in heterogeneous catalysis. Subsequently, we retrospect our journey over the last ten years towards designing and fabricating amorphous POPs for heterogeneous catalysis, specifically photocatalytic reactive oxygen species (ROS)‐mediated organic transformations and nonredox chemical fixation of CO2. We have also outlined some of the future avenues of POPs and POP‐based hybrid materials for diverse catalytic applications.

Porous organic polymers as a promising platform for efficient capture of heavy metal pollutants in wastewater

“…Flexible building blocks that do not fit together neatly, like aliphatic molecules or polymers with flexible side chains, can be used to create amorphous POPs. 105 POPs fall into three complementary groups: crystalline or amorphous, conjugated or non-conjugated, and semiconducting or heterogenized molecular analogues (Fig. 6A).…”

“…Flexible building blocks that do not fit together neatly, like aliphatic molecules or polymers with flexible side chains, can be used to create amorphous POPs. 105…”

Recent Progress of Amorphous Porous Organic Polymers as Heterogeneous Photocatalysts for Organic Synthesis

“…For example, Abhijit and Arkaprabha reviewed the photocatalytic organic transformation of reactive oxygen species and nonredox fixation of CO 2 by amorphous POP. [43] Zhang et al summarized the application of metal-free and metal-containing carbazole CMPs in photocatalytic organic synthesis. [44] In this review, miscellaneous reported amorphous POPs are systematically classified, expecting to understand the current status of heterogeneous photocatalysts in the field of photocatalytic organic transformations (Figure 2).…”

Pyridinium‐Functionalized Ionic Porous Organic Polymer for Rapid Scavenging of Oxoanions from Water

“…On the other hand, highly porous ionic metal organic frameworks (MOFs) explored for oxoanion removal often suffer from long-term stability in acidic or basic mediums. [18,19] In this context, porous organic polymers (POPs), owing to their tunable pore functionalities, high porosity, hierarchical pore size distribution, excellent hydrothermal and chemical stability, [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] have emerged as advanced adsorbent materials for molecular separation, including wastewater treatment. [31][32][33] Recently, ionic POPs, [33][34][35] fabricated through the integration of charged building blocks or post-synthetic modification, have been demonstrated as suitable materials for the removal of toxic oxoanions through an ion-exchange process.…”