Skeleton engineering of conjugated microporous polymer for highly efficient PM capture in harsh environments

Air pollution caused by particulate matters (PMs) has become a significantly global health and environmental concern. In particular, the efficient PMs capture in harsh environments such as high-humidity and high-temperature is crucial for both industrial and ecological health. In this work, two kind of conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) aerogel-based air filters were constructed via one-pot Sonogashira-Hagihara cross-coupling polymerization for PMs capture in harsh environments and vehicle exhaust purification. The resulting CMP aerogels comprise of hollow nanotubes to form porous network with excellent thermal and mechanical stability. On the lab-made equipment, the filtration efficiency of the CMPs aerogels for PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ exceeds 99 % under different air flows and thickness (1.5-3.0 mm). Due to the stable skeletons and intrinsic hydrophobicity, the resulting CMP aerogels can achieve high-efficiency removal for PM_2.5 even at high temperature (600 °C) and high humidity (>90 %) without obvious morphology change. In addition, the resulting 2-CMP sample showed excellent filtration efficiency of 99.4 ± 0.1 % toward practical vehicle exhaust. Our work was expected to not only provide an avenue to develop high-effective CMP-based air filters for harsh environments, but also to expand the potential application of CMP materials in environmental remediation.