Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are attractive organic photocatalysts because their porosity, extended π conjugation, and tunable donor–acceptor (D–A) architectures can promote light harvesting, charge separation, and substrate transport. Herein we report two pyridine-based donor–acceptor CMPs, BTPP-TPA and BTPP-TPT, synthesized through Suzuki coupling of a tetrabrominated pyridine-containing building block (BTPP) with triphenylamine (TPA)- or triphenyltriazine (TPT)-based boronate monomers. Both CMPs exhibit high thermal stability, permanent porosity, broad visible-light absorption, and favorable electronic structures for photocatalytic applications. Notably, the more planar and nitrogen-rich BTPP-TPT framework shows enhanced interfacial charge transport, stronger dye–framework interactions, and superior photocatalytic activity relative to BTPP-TPA. BTPP-TPT delivered adsorption efficiencies of 98.29% for rhodamine B (RhB) and 98.24% for methylene blue (MB) within 90 min and achieved visible-light-driven photodegradation rate constants of 2.6 × 10–2 min–1 for RhB and 1.7 × 10–2 min–1 for MB. Spectroscopic and electrochemical studies, together with molecular orbital calculations, indicate that D–A polarization and linker planarity govern charge separation and reactive oxygen species generation in these frameworks. This work highlights how molecular-level engineering of pyridine-based CMPs can regulate porosity, electronic structure, and photocatalytic function, providing an effective strategy for metal-free polymer photocatalysts for wastewater remediation.
Abdelnaser et al. (Mon,) studied this question.