Functional porous organic polymer with high S and N for reversible iodine capture.

Nuclear waste such as radioactive iodine has been received worldwide attention because of the effects of radiation on biological health. The efficient capture of radioactive iodine is of great importance for the safe utilization of nuclear energy. In this study, a functional porous organic polymer (P-TzTz) with high sulfur and nitrogen contents was synthesized by the catalyst-free hydrothermal process of dithiocarbanate (DTO) and benzo[1,2-b:3,4-b′:5,6-b″]trithiophene-2,5,8-tricarbaldehyde (BTT-THO) in N , N -dimethylformamide under N 2 atmosphere. This tailor-made amorphous polymer exhibits high affinity and adsorption capacity for iodine owing to its effective electron-rich sorption sites, π-conjugated structure and hierarchically porous structure. P-TzTz displays an excellent reversible iodine uptake with capacity of 326 wt% for volatile iodine. After five cycles of volatile iodine adsorption, P-TzTz almost retains the same adsorption capacity with the original adsorbent. In addition, P-TzTz also exhibits excellent adsorptive performance for the removal of iodine from iodine/cyclohexane solution with an adsorption capacity of 494.09 mg g−1, suggesting that P-TzTz may be also an effective adsorbent for the removal of iodine from solution. Image 1 • A functional porous organic polymer with rich S and N (P-TzTz) was synthesized. • P-TzTz shows excellent volatile iodine uptake of 326 wt%. • P-TzTz can adsorb iodine in cyclohexane solution with an excellent adsorption capacity of 494.09 mg g−1. • After five cycles, P-TzTz shows almost the same iodine adsorption capacity with pristine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]