1. Synthetic Routes to Porous Polymers Containing Borazine and Diazaborole Building Blocks
Hani M. El-Kaderi, Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
The objectives of this research are to prepare new classes of low density nanoporous organic polymers that are linked by strong B-N covalent bonds and composed of chemically and electronically tunable building blocks. Also of interest is using gas sorption experiments to investigate porosity and determine hydrogen storage at variable temperature and pressure ranges.
Through the formation of borazine rings, the targeted polymers, dubbed borazine-linked polymers (BLPs), lead to structures similar to those of covalent-organic frameworks (COFs). Even though there are some structural similarities between the reported COFs and the polymers of interest, the attractive nature of BLPs lay in their chemically and electronically tunable nature through the use of electron rich building blocks in combination with different boron-halides sources.
We have prepared several BLPs by simple treatment of arylamines with boronhalides. The resultant polymers are insoluble in organic solvents and have high surface area (800 to 1200 m2/g). The architectural stability, chemical composition, and phase purity were authenticated using a combination of FT-IR, TGA, as well as porosity measurements (Figures below). We are currently targeting new 2D and 3D BLPs and investigating their performance in clean energy applications.