Bimodal heterogeneous functionality in redox-active conjugated microporous polymer towards electrocatalytic oxygen reduction and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Designing and developing heterogeneous catalysts for conversion of renewable energy to chemical energies by electrochemical as well as photochemical processes are in the forefront of the energy research. Here, we have synthesized donor-acceptor based two new redox active conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) namely; TAPA-OPE-mix and TAPA-OPE-gly via Schiff base condensation reaction using microwave synthesizer. Notably, asymmetric and symmetric bola-amphiphilic nature of OPE struts have resulted in distinct nano-structuring and morphologies in CMPs. Interestingly, both CMPs have shown impressive heterogeneous catalytic activity towards electrochemical O2 reduction and photocatalytic H2 evolution reactions and therefore, for the first time, turns out as bimodal electro and photo-catalyst porous organic material. Furthermore, redox-active property of CMPs was exploited for in-situ generation and stabilization of platinum nanoparticles (Pt) and subsequently, metal nano-particles stabilized CMPs (Pt@CMPs) exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity.