Functional Porous Organic Polymers Comprising a Triaminotriphenylazobenzene Subunit as a Platform for Copper-Catalyzed Aerobic C–H Oxidation

Developing functional porous materials as a platform for the heterogeneous catalytic oxidation reaction provides a good way to solve the high environmental issues resulted by traditional oxidation processes in the industry. This article reported a design and facile synthesis of N-rich functional porous organic polymers with mesopores such as Azo-POP-4, Azo-POP-5, and Azo-POP-6 based on the triaminotriphenylazobenzene subunit for the first time. The nitrogen-rich POPs with the triaminotriphenylazobenzene subunit was found to remove 85% of copper ions from water within 30 min. The as-synthesized Cu@Azo-POP-4 demonstrated high catalytic reactivity and selectivity in aerobic C–H bond oxidation to afford the desired ketones in high yield. In addition, the catalyst could be reused easily five times without decreasing the reactivity, which will help to design catalysts reducing environmental pollution and advance the chemical technology.