Urea-Engineered Porous Organic Polymers for Efficient Iodine Capture in Gas and Liquid Phases

Abstract

The handling of radioactive elements carefully in nuclear wastewater is of utmost importance, especially radioiodine, which has been demonstrated to be harmful to human health and environment. In this context, porous organic polymers (POPs) serve as a novel class of porous materials have shown the potential in many fields especially for the removing of I2 attributing to their specific surface areas, tunable open pore structures and adjustable functional building blocks. Herein, we report the preparing of two urea-based POPs (POP-TFPB-U-1 and POP-TFPB-U-2) via the Schiff base reaction between 1,3,5-tris(p-formylphenyl)benzene (TFPB) and two distinct urea-based phenylamine compounds. Their nucleophilic nitrogen atoms, phenyl rings, hydrogen bonds and porosity endow them with effective I₂ vapor adsorption capacities of 5.56 g/g and 4.55 g/g, and achieving 89.1% and 97.7% of the theoretical adsorption efficiency in cyclohexane solution.