Porous sulfur polymers for effective aqueous-phase organic contaminant removal

Sulfur polymers produced through 'inverse vulcanization' exhibit various attributes, such as photocatalytic activity and a high capacity to adsorb heavy metals. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research investigating the use of sulfur polymers as materials for the removal of organic contaminants. In this work, porous sulfur polymers (PSPs) were synthesized from elemental sulfur and 1,3-diisopropenylbenzene, with porosity introduced via salt templating. The result is a material that can strongly adsorb and chemically neutralize a model organic contaminant (caffeine). PSPs show adsorption up to 5 times higher than a leading adsorption material (activated carbon). Furthermore, either the adsorption or degradation processes can govern the removal efficiency depending on the synthesis parameters of PSPs. This is the first-ever report demonstrating sulfur polymers as effective materials for removing emerging contaminants from water. The versatile synthesis of sulfur polymers offers variation, which means that there is much more to explore in this exciting research area.