Triptycene-Based Cationic Porous Organic Polymer for the Swift and Effective Removal of Organic and Inorganic Anionic Water Pollutants

Inadequate access to clean water is an acute problem that is known to affect a sizable human population residing in several parts of our planet. Continuous growth in industrialization, energy production, and mining activities has significantly increased the presence of various environmental contaminants in water sources, including heavy metal ions, emerging organic pollutants, and radioactive nuclear wastes. Innovative methods are urgently needed in this sector as current technologies for purifying polluted water are often either expensive, operationally slow, have limited sustainability, or are restricted to specific pollutants. To address these concerns, it is necessary to develop improved and cost-effective water treatment technologies. Herein, a positively charged porous organic polymer (TPᵢPOP-2) was synthesized via a facile one-step Menskhutin reaction. Subsequent to characterization, TPᵢPOP-2 was tested as an adsorbent for the removal of several commonly detected anionic water pollutants. Experimental results show that TPᵢPOP-2 has a remarkable potential to absorb diverse inorganic and organic water contaminants, such as CrO42–, TcO4–, I3–, picrate, and organic dyes (alizarin red S and methyl orange) with high uptake capacities in each case. Simultaneously, TPᵢPOP-2 also exhibited fast sieving kinetics toward these pollutants. Our results demonstrate the ability of TPᵢPOP-2 to successfully purify water containing a wider spectrum of contaminants. In addition, the effectiveness of TPᵢPOP-2 in capturing toxic pollutants did not change to any significant extent, even in the presence of other competitive anions. The TPᵢPOP-2 also shows high distribution coefficients (Kd > 105 mg/L), which is a characteristic feature of a good adsorbent. Overall, TPᵢPOP-2 has most of the features that are expected for an ideal adsorbent for water purification. Hence, TPᵢPOP-2 has the potential to be an affordable alternative to the adsorbent materials currently employed in water treatment applications.