In this work, four flexible chain phosphonium-based ionic organic single crystals (IOCs) are firstly facile prepared by pair-to-pair ionic self-assembly of phosphonium salts and sulfonic acids (salts) under mild conditions. Their structures, morphology, stability, and surface areas are characterized in detail. Featuring a wealth of sulfonate and phenyl groups as powerful active sites for iodine adsorption, these materials exhibit considerable capture capacities. An in-depth investigation of the adsorption mechanism reveals that iodine adsorption on these materials occurs in three distinct states (I2, I3-, and I5-) and follows a mixed-mode adsorption process, involving both physical and chemical interactions. Consequently, this study not only presents a new kind of single crystalline materials based on flexible phosphonium and sulfonic anionic pairs, but also significantly hint the application possibility of this kind of IOCs in some other fields.

This article is Open Access

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