Metal nanoparticles are potent reaction catalysts, but they tend to aggregate, thereby limiting their catalytic efficiency. Their coordination with specific functional groups within a porous structure prevents their aggregation and facilitates the mass flow of catalytic starting materials and products. Herein, we use a thiacalix[4]arene-based polymer as a porous support with abundant docking sites for Au nanoparticles. The sulfur atoms bridging the phenolic subunits of thiacalix[4]arene serve as Lewis basic sites that coordinate Au atoms. Therefore, this approach takes advantage of the functional groups inherent in the monomer and avoids laborious postsynthetic modifications of the polymer. The presented system was tested for visible-light-driven photocatalytic CO2 reduction, where it showed adequate ability to generate 6.74 μmol g-1 CO over the course of 4 h, while producing small amounts of the CH4 product. This study aims to stimulate interest in the design and development of synthetically simpler porous polymer supports for various metal nanoparticles in catalytic and other applications.
Keywords: CO2 reduction; nanoparticles; photocatalysis; porous polymers; thiacalixarene.