BODIPY-linked conjugated porous polymers for dye wastewater treatment

As a new family of functional porous materials, conjugated porous polymers (CPPs) with tuneable porosities and molecular architectures show great potentials in adsorption, light harvesting, and catalysis applications. This paper describes the incorporation of strong visible-light absorbing BODIPY molecules into the skeleton of CPPs via Sonogashira coupling reactions. The obtained CPPs displayed integrated properties of high surface area, hierarchical porous structures and strong visible-light absorption. As a result, the CPPs showed relatively high adsorption capacity and high photocatalytic degradation efficiency towards organic dyes. Mechanism studies revealed that the CPPs enabled the generation of singlet oxygen species under light irradiation, accounting for the main driving force for the dye degradation. This study provides a new route for the development of organic adsorbents and photocatalysts for water treatment and purification.