Bifunctional Calixarene-Decorated BODIPY-based Nanoporous Organic Polymers for the Efficient Photodegradation of Aqueous Organic Pollutants

The increasingly severe wastewater pollution from an industry that contains organic dyes and phenols urges the development of sustainable removal technology. This work reports a bifunctional nanoporous organic polymer-based photocatalyst CABP by integrating a boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) chain polymer and a calixarene monomer into a polymer network. The CABP photocatalyst exhibits higher photodegradation competency toward bisphenol A and methylene blue (MB) than the linear polymer FBP. Noteworthily, good recyclability and robustness of the CABP were found, highlighting the promising utility in wastewater treatment. Mechanistic investigations suggested that the discrepancy between the bisphenol A (BPA) and MB photodegradation can be attributed to the preference for generating different reactive oxygen species and the nature of the molecular interaction with the photocatalyst. This contribution demonstrates a practical approach to the design of efficient photocatalysts for wastewater purification and regeneration.