Rationalising the influence of solvent choice on the porosity of conjugated microporous polymers

Abstract

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) synthesised in different solvents give different surface areas dependent on the solvent choice. No one solvent results in a high surface area across a range of different CMP materials. Here, we present an investigation into how the porosity of CMPs is affected by solvent polarity. It is seen that the trends differ depending on the respective monomer dipole moments and whether hydrogen bonding groups are present in the monomers and are able to interact with the respective solvent via hydrogen bonding. It is believed that this methodology could be used to influence future materials design of both structure and synthesis strategy.