Highly efficient chlorinated solvent uptake by novel covalent organic networks via thiol-ene chemistry

Abstract

In this study, we synthesized an aliphatic-aromatic regular network as a novel covalent organic networks called TEPN-1 (Thiol-ene Polymer Network) and TEPN-2 via thiol-ene chemistry. TEPN-1 and TEPN-2 were analyzed by FTIR, C-13-NMR, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, thermogravimetric analysis and elemental analysis. Solvent uptake capacity of TEPN-1 and TEPN-2 was employed against 26 solvents which are frequently used in chemical industry. It is found that TEPN-1 has the highest swelling adsorption ratio with chloroform and DCM (13.7 and 11.5 g.g(-1), respectively), while TEPN-2 has 9.2 and 7.5 g.g(-1), respectively. Both TEPN-1 and TEPN-2 have very minimal water uptake (0.165 and 0.189 g.g(-1), respectively). TEPN-1 and TEPN-2 are efficient adsorbents for most of organic solvents including water-miscible organic solvents such as THF, dioxane and pyridine.