Room temperature route to silsesquioxane-based porphyrin functional NIR porous polymer for efficient photodegradation of azo-dyes under sunlight

Here we report a novel cage-like silsesquioxane-based porous polymer (PCS-CA) by the amide condensation reaction of octa(3-aminopropyl)silsesquioxane hydrochloride (OAS) with tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (HCPP) at room temperature with high yield. PCS-CA shows a high surface area of 452 m2g−1 and hierarchical pore structure with coexistence of micropores and mesopores which can remove heavy metal ions effectively. The resulting PCS-CA-Mn after the complex of PCS-CA with Mn2+ shows an excellent photodegradation ability of Congo Red (CR) and Methyl Orange (MO) in water with ∼ 100% degradation efficiency under sunlight. The possible photodegradation mechanism of PCS-CA-Mn is also proposed. Moreover, PCS-CA and PCS-CA-Mn offer NIR emission at ∼ 740 nm.