Facile Mass Fabrication of Non-noble Metal-Containing Porous Organic Polymers for Rapid Degradation of Organic Pollutants

Porous organic polymers (POP) are a promising material with high surface area and excellent photocatalytic performance but are obviously limited by high-cost monomers, low production and yield, harsh reaction conditions, and ruleless morphology. Inspired by the traditional polymerization process, mass-synthesizing spherical POP at normal pressure may have a change to solve the above dilemmas. Therefore, we presented a one-step strategy for mass-producing spherical POP, whose morphology was stabilized by the emulsifier at simple magnetic stirring. The as-prepared spherical POP exhibited good photocatalytic performance and porosity, both of which were significantly enhanced after the incorporation of non-noble metals (Fe, Ni, and Zn). Notably, as the solid content increased, the mass-produced spherical POP materials demonstrated a mass yield exceeding 60 wt %. The Zn-doped POP possessed the best photocatalytic performance, which could degrade 98.7% of 10 ppm of methylene blue within 40 min (higher than the degradation of 97% of the same concentration of methylene blue in 80 min by POP). In addition, the POP photocatalysts can still maintain >90% of the photocatalytic degradation rate after five cycles of degradation, showing excellent stability. This mass production strategy of POP exhibits strong advantages of low costs and industrial production potential, and a thought for preparing materials at the industrial level holds promise for various environmental application scenarios especially in the scene needing cost control.