Methanesulfonic Acid as a Dual-Role Reagent for Porous Polymer Network Design

The need to develop new materials for energy and environmental sustainability has drawn significant attention in recent years due to population growth, depletion of raw materials, and rising costs. Porous materials are at the center of this quest, necessitating facile approaches for their synthesis, as well as for both pristine and post-synthetically modified sorbents. This is crucial to reduce chemical waste and hazards involved in the process. Methanesulfonic acid (MSA) is currently being explored as a reagent for the design and fabrication of porous polymer networks (PPNs), with several successful reports so far in the literature. This perspective highlights the overall properties and benefits of MSA for the design of PPNs. A better understanding of MSA's capabilities will open new frontiers and help overcome the limitations of difficult-to-scale PPNs. This is because although these PPNs are robust, they still suffer major techno-economic setbacks that hinder their integration into industrial processes. In addition to the cost of starting materials, which pose a challenge to commercialization, the synthetic approach also contributes significantly. As MSA can play the role of both a solvent and an acid catalyst in a reaction, it is a promising dual-role reagent for the design of PPNs.