Harnessing electron-rich framework in cyclophosphazene derived hybrid nanoporous materials for organocatalytic C-C bond formation and gas sorption applications

Nanoporous inorganic-organic hybrid materials with estimated specific surface area (SA_BET) of 870 m² g^-1 and multimodal hierarchical pore structure centered at 1.64, 3.14 and 6.3 nm have been synthesized. These cyclophosphazene derived metal-free materials have adsorbed 14.8 and 1.61 wt% of CO₂ and H₂ at 273 and 77 K, respectively, at 1 bar. The materials have shown efficient C-C bond formation via the Knoevenagel condensation with a maximum yield of 97% that only reduced marginally to 81% even after five cycles. These electron rich high surface area materials could further be useful for several other energy and environmental applications.