Microporous Organic Polymer Nanocomposites for Adsorption Applications

Microporous organic polymers (MOPs) are a class of materials widely studied for their excellent adsorption properties, finding application in gas adsorption and separation, energy storage, water purification, catalysis, sensing, drug delivery, optoelectronics, and in the design of superhydrophobic surfaces. The study of their porous structure, including the evaluation of the relative amount of micro-, meso-, and macropores, lets to well explain the properties of MOP. In particular, physical adsorption is significantly favored when substantial amount of nanosized porosity is present. On the other side, the rate of adsorption is enhanced when MOPs are characterized by hierarchical porosity. Among microporous materials, MOPs stand out for their low density associated to high SSA and porosity. Moreover, organic polymers allow significant structural and functional diversification through the introduction of specific chemical functionalities into the pores. Moreover, recently, several research works have demonstrated the possibility of tuning some specific functional properties of MOP embedding various functional nanostructured materials. In this chapter, after summarizing major properties and application of MOPs, we report, for the first time, the most recent advances on the synthesis of novel microporous organic polymer nanocomposites (MOPNs), with a view to evaluating their potentiality for applications in effective adsorption devices.