Spongy Materials Based on Supramolecular Polymer Networks for Detection and Separation of Broad-Spectrum Pollutants

By rationally introducing multi-interactions sites, supramolecular polymer networks (SPN-TDPG) has been successfully designed and constructed. SPN-TDPG gel shows aggregation-induced emission, meanwhile, its xerogel possesses a porous sponge structure. Interestingly, the SPN-TDPG shows detection and separation properties for broad-spectrum pollutants, such as heavy metal ions, anions, oxometallates, various organic dyes, organic pollutants, and volatile organic compounds. The detection limits of SPN-TDPG-based gel for cations and anions are in the range of 10–8 to 10–9 M. Moreover, the separation rates of SPN-TDPG-based xerogel for heavy metal ions, oxometallates, various organic dyes, and organic pollutants can reach up to 99.8%. The high sensitivity and broad-spectrum adsorption separation properties are based on the multi-interaction sites that we rationally introduced into the SPN-TDPG. Therefore, it is a convenient way for the preparation of SPN-based spongy multiple functional materials.