Hypercrosslinked porous polycarbazoles from carbazolyl-bearing aldehydes or ketones

Abstract Hypercrosslinked polymers have drawn increasing interest due to their porous structure, large specific surface area, and excellent chemical and thermal stability. Using the carbonyl bearing carbazole monomers Cz-22∼27, a series of hypercrosslinked porous polycarbazoles CPOP-22∼27 have been synthesized through oxidative coupling polymerization and Friedel–Crafts reaction in one-step promoted by FeCl3. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller specific surface areas of CPOP-22∼27 are between 440 and 760 m2 g−1. Their dominant pore sizes vary from 0.99 to 1.06 nm, which indicating that the polymers are predominantly microporous. This work provides a new method to synthesis of hypercrosslinked porous polycarbazoles from carbonyl functionalized carbazoles. It is also found that parts of aldehyde groups can not react through the Friedel–Crafts alkylation when increasing the number of carbazole groups. The residual aldehyde groups in the polymer can even react with Tollens' reagent solution to form Ag nanoparticles composite.