Recent research progress in the synthesis, characterization and applications of hyper cross-linked polymer

Hyper Cross-linked polymers (HCPs) are class of porous materials that have been intensively used in the past few years. The HCP material is in most cases synthesized by Friedel Craft reactions. The HCP material is synthesized by the following three methods: Post crosslinking of polymer precursors, direct single step poly-condensation reaction of functional monomers, and Crosslinking by external cross linkers. Hyper crosslinking is a technique that introduces a large number of tiny pores into a polymers. These pores result in a high surface area of the polymer which increases its reactivity. HCPs have extremely high surface areas, good porosity, low density, efficient adsorption properties, easy synthesis, less cost, environmental friendly, high thermal and chemical stability, light weight and reusability etc. These extraordinary features as compared to other polymers, make HCPs, promising candidates for solving environmental pollution and catalysis as well as energy crisis. They have many interesting applications such as water treatment, gas storage, super-capacitors, sensing, catalysis, drug delivery and chromatographic separations etc. In this review article, we not only discuss the strategies for the synthesis of HCPs but also the modern techniques for their characterization as well as recent applications of HCPs in different fields. The morphology of HCPs and their novel features also summarized in this review article.