Porous organic polymers as a promising platform for efficient capture of heavy metal pollutants in wastewater

Heavy metal pollution in aquatic systems has been identified as a global threat to human health and environmental safety. Adsorption is one of the most efficient, available and economical techniques for metal removal from wastewater. However, this promising approach depends on the development of highly cost-effective and sustainable adsorbents. Porous organic polymers (POPs), as new-generation adsorbents for the segregation of metal contaminants from water, have demonstrated tremendous potential and gained worldwide attention, owing to their extraordinary physicochemical properties and unique advantages, such as readily tailorable porosity, huge surface areas, excellent chemical/thermal stability, high ease of synthesis, tunable functionality and architectural diversity as well as high densities of strong adsorption sites. Herein we review state-of-the-art technical and scientific developments in the design, synthesis and applications of POP-based adsorbents for water purification and give an overview comparison of current methods for applications in membrane, chemical, electric, and photocatalytic-based separations. Future perspectives for achieving high adsorption efficiency and adsorption capacity are further discussed to motivate future contributions and explore new possibilities in wastewater treatment.