Furan- and Thiophene-Modified Hyper-Crosslinked Polymers and Their Adsorption of Phenol from Aqueous Solution

Herein, furan- and thiophene-modified hyper-crosslinked polymers, namely, PS-FU-HCP and PS-TH-HCP, were successfully prepared from chloromethylated polystyrene via two-step Friedel–Crafts alkylation reactions, and they were applied as the adsorbents for the comparative adsorption of phenol from aqueous solution. The first Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction produced abundant oxygen (O) and sulfur (S) for the polymers, and the O and S contents were measured to be 12.7 and 9.15 wt %, respectively. The second one created abundant new micropores for the polymers, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area ( S BET ) of the polymers increased to 560 and 574 m 2 /g, respectively. The resulting polymers are promising for the adsorption of phenol from aqueous solution, and the maximum capacities ( q max ) reached 180.7 and 173.1 mg/g for PS-FU-HCP and PS-TH-HCP, respectively. The kinetic curves displayed that the adsorption attained equilibrium within 60 min and the pseudo-second-order rate model characterized the kinetic data well with the kinetic rates of 1.40 × 10 –3 g/(mg·min) and 6.72 × 10 –4 g/(mg·min), respectively.