Fabrication of Conjugated Porous Polymer Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reactions: A Bottom-Up Approach

Abstract

The present study demonstrates the fabrication of a conjugated porous polymer (CPP-P2) through a Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura poly-condensation reaction. C-13 cross-polarization solid-state NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterize CPP-P2. Pristine nitrogen-containing CPP was explored as a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in 0.1 M KOH aqueous alkaline media. In the case of CPP-P2,the polymer oxygen reduction reaction occurs via a four-electron transfer mechanism. An understanding of the oxygen reduction at the molecular level and the role of molecular packing in the three-dimensional structure was proposed based on density functional theory (DFT) modeling.