Nanoporous hypercrosslinked polymers containing Tg enhancing comonomers

Hypercrosslinked polymers containing functionalized alternating copolymer sequences of substituted stilbene or styrene and N-aryl substituted maleimides have been synthesized. Alternating copolymers containing these comonomers possess semi-rigid structures, and incorporation of these units into the precursor polymer particles for hypercrosslinking leads to a systematic increase in T_g and chain stiffness of these materials as the concentration of the comonomers is increased. Surface area and porosity of the subsequent hypercrosslinked polymers were investigated using nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms at 77 K. These hypercrosslinked polymers exhibit BET surface areas ranging from 1058 m²/g at 25 mol% alternating copolymer incorporation down to loss of measurable surface area at ca. 60% incorporation. The experimental surface area results correlate with predictions from simulations and serve as model systems for future studies on specifically functionalized hypercrosslinked polymer particles.