Melamine-supported porous organic polymers for efficient CO2 capture and Hg2+ removal

Abstract Functionalized porous organic polymers (POPs) with high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area (SBET) and unique porosity is promising while its facile synthesis remains a challenge. Herein, a novel synthesis strategy based on Schiff-base chemistry was developed and melamine was embedded as a rigid external cross-linker to construct a kind of novel functionalized POPs. The resulting melamine-supported polymers showed high SBET (645 m2/g) and total pore volume (Vtotal, 0.84 cm3/g) with unique hierarchical porosity, indicative of its outstanding CO2 capture and Hg2+ removal. Noticeably, the as-prepared sample TPE-TMC-2MA exhibited high CO2 uptake of 153 mg/g and its ultramicropore volume (Vultra, 0.16 cm3/g) played a positive role. In particular, the maximum capacity of Hg2+ reached 392 mg/g, much higher than some other materials reported in the literature.