Nanoporous Conducting Covalent Organic Polymer (COP) Nanostructures as Metal-Free High Performance Visible-Light Photocatalyst for Water Treatment and Enhanced CO2 Capture

Abstract

The use of metal-free diacetylene based polymers to resolve environmental problems is an emerging field of research interest. In this study, two dipeptide functionalized diacetylene based compounds were synthesized. Compound 1 self-assembles to form organogels under certain conditions. Exposure of UV light irradiation on organogel results in the formation of one-dimensional polydiacetylene based conjugated nanoporous covalent organic polymer (PDA-COP 1) nanostructures that demonstrate significant recyclable photocatalytic dye degradation and substantial CO2 capture ability. Under visible light irradiation, 92% methyl orange degradation is achieved in the presence of PDA-COP 1 after 120 min without the support of any sacrificial reagents or precious metal cocatalysts. Remarkably, surface area is tuned from 0.001 m2 g-1 (compound 1) to 260.484 m2 g-1 for the light-induced developed nanoporous covalent organic polymer (PDA-COP 1). In addition, CO2 uptake by PDA-COP 1 is increased by 2.45 times more than the CO2 uptake by the respective monomeric compound 1. © 2017 American Chemical Society.