Tubular-Shape Evolution of Microporous Organic Networks

This work suggests a synthetic method for tubular-shape evolution of amorphous and microporous organic networks. The gradual addition of a dihalo building block to its mixture with tetrakis(4-ethynylphenyl)methane under conventional Sonogashira coupling conditions resulted in the formation of tubular materials. The resulting tubular materials were characterized by scanning and transmission (TEM) electron microscopies, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and thermogravimetric analyses, and solid-phase 13 C NMR spectroscopy. In comparison, when the mixture of a dihalo building block and tetrakis(4-ethynylphenyl)methane was heated under conventional Sonogashira coupling conditions, granular materials were formed. We suggest that the tubular-shape evolution is attributed to the differences of steric situations in networking steps. In TEM, the oriented attachment of the tubular materials was observed.