Capture of volatile iodine by novel conjugated microporous polymers hollow spheres containing N, S electro-rich groups

The radioactive iodine contained in nuclear waste is a major threat to the ecological environment, the safety of the public and human health. Herein, two novel CMPs containing electron-rich N and S were synthesized using the Sonogashira-Hagihara cross-coupling condensation reaction and modulated their micromorphology into hollow microspheres for the study of iodine adsorption. The two CMPs exhibit better iodine adsorption capacity, with 154.6 wt % and 182.4 wt % of adsorbent mass for iodine at 80 °C, respectively. More importantly, HCMP-1 and HCMP-2 show excellent selectivity for iodine adsorption, and the presence of water vapor and cyclohexane which hardly hindered iodine adsorption. On the contrary, the presence of water vapor induces the adsorption of iodine by HCMP-1 with 1.7 times of the initial adsorption value. The adsorption behavior of iodine by HCMPs is consistent with the quasi-secondary kinetic model and the Freundlich isothermal model. Our study may provide new ideas for the design and synthesis of functional CMPs containing electron-rich groups for the effective capture and reversible storage of radioiodine to efficiently solve environmental problems.