Macrocycle-based porous organic polymers for separation, sensing, and catalysis.

With the rapid development of materials science, porous organic polymers (POPs) have received remarkable attentions because of their unique properties such as the exceptionally high surface area and flexible molecular design. The ability to incorporate specific functions in a precise manner makes POPs promising platforms for a myriad of applications in molecular adsorption, separation and catalysis. Therefore, many different types of POPs have been rationally designed and synthesized to expand the scope of advanced materials, endowing them with distinct structures and properties. Recently, supramolecular macrocycles with excellent host-guest complexation abilities are emerging as powerful crosslinkers for developing novel POPs with hierarchical structures and improved performance, which can be well-organized at different spatial scales. Macrocycle-based POPs could have unusual porous, adsorptive and optical properties when compared to their non-macrocycle-incorporated counterparts. This cooperation provides valuable insights for the molecular-level understanding of skeletal complexity and diversity. We aptly summarize here the research advances of macrocycle-based POPs by showing their syntheses, properties and applications in terms of separation, sensing and catalysis. Finally, we delineate the current challenging issues in this exciting research field and offer a comprehensive outlook for their future directions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.