Filling the Pores of the Post-Cross-Linked Polymers with Different Rigid Cross-Linking Bridges

Herein, the one-pot Friedel-Crafts reaction was performed for polydivinylbenzene and 1,2-dichloroethane, tetrachloride, and cyanuric chloride were used as the external cross-linking agents to fill the mesopores of polydivinylbenzene. The results indicated that methylene, carbonyl, and triazine ring filled the mesopores of polydivinylbenzene as the rigid cross-linking bridges successfully and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and total pore volume of the resultant post-cross-linked polymers were greatly increased and the pore size distribution was readily tuned. Importantly, using cyanuric chloride as the cross-linking agent produced abundant micropores with considerable micropore area and micropore volume, and the pore size distribution had an obvious transfer from mainly distributed mesopores to predominated micropores. The equilibrium adsorption revealed that the resulting polymer PDVB-CC using cyanuric chloride as the post-cross-linking agent exhibited the best adsorption to phenol with the maximum capacity (q(max)) of 448.5 mg/g while the least adsorption to Congo red (q(max): 128.5 mg/g). The kinetic adsorption demonstrated that PDVB-CC needed the least time to the equilibrium while more than 300 min was required for the adsorption of Congo red attaining the equilibrium due to the much difficult diffusion of Congo red in the micropores.