Regioselective SNAr for metal free nanoporous polymers. We used a powerful, regioselective (para positions) aromatic nucleophilic substitution of perfluoro aromatics to construct C-C bonded porous networks (Chem. Mater. 2016, 28, 5592–5595). The fluorine functionalities also led into easy post-modification (a long standing challenge) for metal free superstructures with high surface area.
Charge induced order in network polymers. Network polymers form under kinetically controlled reactions and tend to be amorphous because of that. We showed that the presence of charged centers greatly enhances the spacing and induces packing when applied to quaternary ammonium linkages (RSC Adv. 2014, 4 , 59779).
Sacrificial silylation for processable network polymers. We synthesized the first benzoxazole and oxadiazole network polymers by adapting a silylation methodology (Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 6729 and Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 2915). The two-step procedure allows film casting through soluble intermediates, opening up possibilities for device fabrication using porous polymers.
