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Abstract The recovery and separation of organic solvents is highly important for the chemical industry and environmental protection. In this context, porous organic polymers (POPs) have significant potential owing to the possibility of integrating shape‐persistent macrocyclic units with high guest selectivity. Here, we report the synthesis of a macrocyclic porous organic polymer (np‐POP) and the corresponding model compound by reacting the cyclotetrabenzil naphthalene octaketone macrocycle with 1,2,4,5‐tetraaminobenzene and 1,2‐diaminobenzene, respectively, under solvothermal conditions. Co‐crystallization of the macrocycle and the model compound with various solvent molecules revealed their size‐selective inclusion within the macrocycle. Building on this finding, thenp‐POP with a hierarchical pore structure and a surface area of 579 m² g⁻¹showed solvent uptake strongly correlated with their kinetic diameters. Solvents with kinetic diameters below 0.6 nm – such as acetonitrile and dichloromethane – showed high uptake capacities exceeding 7 mmol g⁻¹. Xylene separation tests revealed a high overall uptake (~34 wt %), witho‐xylene displaying a significantly lower uptake (~10 wt % less than other isomers), demonstrating the possibility of size and shape selective separation of organic solvents. 

Abstract The development of porous materials is of great interest for the capture of CO₂from various emission sources, which is essential to mitigate its detrimental environmental impact. In this direction, porous organic polymers (POPs) have emerged as prime candidates owing to their structural tunability, physiochemical stability and high surface areas. In an effort to transfer an intrinsic property of a cyclotetrabenzoin‐derived macrocycle – its high CO₂affinity – into porous networks, herein we report the synthesis of three‐dimensional (3D) macrocycle‐based POPs through the polycondensation of an octaketone macrocycle with phenazine‐2,3,7,8‐tetraamine hydrochloride. This polycondensation was performed under ionothermal conditions, using a eutectic salt mixture in the temperature range of 200 to 300 °C. The resulting polymers, named 3D‐mmPOPs, showed reaction temperature‐dependent surface areas and gas uptake properties. 3D‐mmPOP‐250 synthesized at 250 °C exhibited a surface area of 752 m² g⁻¹and high microporosity originating from the macrocyclic units, thus resulting in an excellent CO₂binding enthalpy of 40.6 kJ mol⁻¹and CO₂uptake capacity of 3.51 mmol g⁻¹at 273 K, 1.1 bar. 

Abstract Organic electrode materials could revolutionize batteries because of their high energy densities, the use of Earth‐abundant elements, and structural diversity which allows fine‐tuning of electrochemical properties. However, small organic molecules and intermediates formed during their redox cycling in lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) have high solubility in organic electrolytes, leading to rapid decay of cycling performance. We report the use of three cyclotetrabenzil octaketone macrocycles as cathode materials for LIBs. The rigid and insoluble naphthalene‐based cyclotetrabenzil reversibly accepts eight electrons in a two‐step process with a specific capacity of 279 mAh g⁻¹and a stable cycling performance with ≈65 % capacity retention after 135 cycles. DFT calculations indicate that its reduction increases both ring strain and ring rigidity, as demonstrated by computed high distortion energies, repulsive regions in NCI plots, and close [C⋅⋅⋅C] contacts between the naphthalenes. This work highlights the importance of shape‐persistency and ring strain in the design of redox‐active macrocycles that maintain very low solubility in various redox states.