Granular activated carbon was customized with a chemical grafting procedure of a nanoporous polymeric network for the purpose of nanoscale zero-valent iron impregnation and subsequent water contaminant remediation. Characterization of the prepared composite material revealed that not only was the polymer attachment and iron impregnation successful, but also that the polymeric shell acted as a protective barrier against the effects of oxidation from the surrounding environment, nearly 99% of total iron content was in the form of zero-valent iron. When applied towards the remediation of two common water contaminants, nitrobenzene and nitrate, the composite material exploited the qualities of both the activated carbon and the polymeric network to work together in a synergistic manner. In that the increased protection from oxidation allowed for increased reactivity of the nanoscale zero-valent iron, and that the adsorption abilities of both the carbon and the polymer achieved a higher amount of total removal of the contaminants.

In this issue of Chem, Mohamed Eddaoudi and co-workers report a novel but simple crystalline porous superstructure that effectively removes all acidic gases and water from natural gas without taking any damage from the reactive guests.

The development of sustainable organocatalysts with porosity, high stability, and excellent catalytic activity offers a clean and green alternative to precious metal catalysts. Here, an efficient, nanoporous, heterogeneous benzoxazole catalyst is reported for aerobic oxidative coupling of amines. A molecular design strategy is presented to functionalize primary amines to produce valuable products under one-pot, open-air reaction conditions. Unprecedented and previously unknown, the stable imine intermediate catalyzes its own formation, also known as autocatalysis, enabling a direct and favorable access to amino acids, even if the catalysts are absent. The biomimetic benzoxazole catalysts developed here provide quantitative catalytic activity over 50 cycles with favorable kinetics with no degradation. This work also marks the first use of benzoxazoles for oxidative catalytic reactions.

Climate change and industrial pollution threatens the availability of clean water. Although established protocols of water treatment exist, water capture by porous materials has emerged as a viable alternative to energy intensive processes. Here we introduce a new charged porous polymer that is capable of capturing and releasing water by simple humidity or temperature swings. The quaternary amines on the framework structure attract water molecules and further solvate by coordination. The porosity of the network structure also provides enough void where water can diffuse throughout the solid. Water uptake capacity of the porous polymer surpasses common desiccants like silica gel and molecular sieves, and has the potential to act as an organic desiccant in applications like electronics or food packaging.

Micropollutants are found in all water sources, even after thorough treatments that include membrane filtration. New ones emerge as complex molecules are continuously produced and discarded after used. Treatment methods and sorbent designs are mainly based on non-specific interactions and, therefore, have been elusive. Here, we developed swellable covalent organic polymers (COP) with great affinity towards micropollutants, such as textile industry dyes. Surprisingly, only cationic dyes in aqueous solution were selectively and completely removed. Studies of the COPs surfaces led to a gating capture, where negatively charged layer attracts cationic dyes and moves them inside the swollen gel through diffusive and hydrophobic interaction of the hydrocarbon fragments. Despite its larger molecular size, crystal violet has been taken the most, 13.4 mg g−1, surpassing all competing sorbents. The maximum adsorption capacity increased from 12.4 to 14.6 mg and from 8.9 to 11.4 mg when the temperature of dye solution was increased from 20 to 70 °C. The results indicated that disulfide-linked COPs are attractive candidates for selectively eliminating cationic dyes from industrial wastewater due to exceptional swelling behaviour, low-cost and easy synthesis.