Post-crosslinking of conjugated microporous polymers using vinyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane for enhancing surface areas and organic micropollutants removal performance from water

High-capacity and rapid adsorption of organic micropollutants (OMPs) from water by adsorbents remain a great significance in water treatment. Recently, porous organic polymers with high surface areas, tunable nanopores and easy-to-modify skeletons are promising new generation of adsorbents. Here, a series of silsesquioxane-crosslinked conjugated microporous polymers (PcCMPs) with high surface areas and well-defined nanopores are developed via a molecular expansion strategy for removing OMPs from water. Among these PcCMPs, PcCMP-2E exhibited the highest Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area up to 2518 m2 g−1. The maximum adsorption capacities of bisphenol A (BPA) of PcCMPs are ranging from 485.44 to 628.93 mg g−1. Specially, >93.5% of BPA could be removed even through a thin layer filtration device composed of PcCMPs, which can be regenerated well using a mild washing procedure. PcCMPs also exhibit extraordinary adsorption to a variety of OMPs, such as tetracycline (226.99 mg g−1), 1-naphthylamine (290.07 mg g−1), 2-naphthol (213.87 mg g−1), 2,4-dichlorophenol (183.85 mg g−1) and p-nitrophenol (360.24 mg g−1). This work provides a new strategy to design porous adsorbents with high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption rate for water treatment.