Owing to their large surface area and good solvent processability, polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) have been widely investigated for gas storage and separation processes. In this article, we show how chemically modifying the polymers can fine-tune their properties for specific, targeted applications. We find that converting the archetypal microporous polymer PIM-1 into a polycarboxylate salt enhances its separation capabilities for H₂/CO₂ mixtures (relevant to hydrogen production), whereas appending multiple amine groups significantly improves gas separation properties for N₂/CO₂ mixtures (relevant to flue gas treatment). Adsorption-based separation processes have received less attention than size-sieving processes in porous polymeric materials, however they could provide a suitable alternative technology to energy-intensive separation processes such as cryogenic distillation. We also report the hydrogen storage properties of the modified polymers, which we find to depend on the chemical modification carried out. By coupling the simplicity of the proposed chemical modifications with the scalability and porous properties of PIMs, we provide a blueprint to create new multifunctional materials with adapted properties for targeted applications.

由于其大表面积和良好的溶剂加工性，固有微孔聚合物 (PIM) 已被广泛研究用于气体储存和分离过程。在本文中，我们展示了化学改性聚合物如何针对特定的目标应用微调其性能。我们发现，将原型微孔聚合物 PIM-1 转化为聚羧酸盐可增强其对 H ₂ /CO ₂混合物（与制氢有关）的分离能力，而附加多个胺基团可显着改善 N ₂ /CO _{2 的}气体分离性能混合物（与烟气处理有关）。在多孔聚合物材料中，基于吸附的分离过程比尺寸筛分过程受到的关注较少，但是它们可以为能源密集型分离过程（如低温蒸馏）提供合适的替代技术。我们还报告了改性聚合物的储氢特性，我们发现这取决于所进行的化学改性。通过将所提出的化学修饰的简单性与 PIM 的可扩展性和多孔特性相结合，我们提供了一个蓝图，以创建具有适用于目标应用的特性的新型多功能材料。