Synthesis of Metalorganic Copolymers Containing Various Contorted Units and Iron(II) Clathrochelates with Lateral Butyl Chains: Conspicuous Adsorbents of Lithium Ions and Methylene Blue.

We report the synthesis of three highly soluble metalorganic copolymers, TCP1-3, that were made from a one-pot complexation of iron(II) clathrochelate units that are interconnected by various thioether-containing contorted groups. TCP1-3 were converted into their poly(vinyl sulfone) derivatives OTCP1-3 quantitatively via the selective oxidation of the thioether moieties into their respective sulfones. All of the copolymers, TCP1-3 and OTCP1-3, underwent structural analysis by various techniques; namely, 1 H- and 13 C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The copolymers were tested as potent lithium ions adsorbents revealing a maximum adsorption (q m ) value of 2.31 mg g -1 for OTCP2. Furthermore, this same copolymer was found to be a promising adsorbent of methylene blue (MEB); an isothermal adsorption study divulged that OTCP2's uptake of MEB from an aqueous solution (following the Langmuir model) was, at maximum adsorption capacity, (q m ) of 480.77 mg g -1 ; whereas the kinetic study divulged that the adsorption follows pseudo second-order kinetics with an equilibrium adsorption capacity (q e,cal ) of 45.40 mg g -1 .