Optimization of the Friedel-Crafts Alkylation for the Synthesis of Hyper-Cross-Linked Polymers

An optimized Friedel-Crafts based methodology used to prepare high surface area and pore volume hyper-cross-linked polymers (HCPs) is presented here. A significant reduction in catalyst quantities resulted in an HCP showing SSABET of 905 m2/g and total pore volume of ≈1.12 cm3/g. Spectroscopic investigations (DR-FTIR and SS-NMR) reveal that lowering the amount of catalyst avoid uncontrolled reaction pathways. For the optimized material, CO2 uptakes are 2.55 mmol/g at 273 K and 1 bar. High pressure measurements at 298 K resulted in the uptake of 7.33 mmol/g of CO2 at 24 bar and 3.84 mmol/g of CH4 at 42 bar.