A series of microporous polymers has been obtained via a low-cost versatile strategy, which involves "knitting" rigid aromatic building blocks, such as benzene, biphenyl, 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene, methylbenzene, chlorobenzene, and phenol using an external cross-linker. These materials are predominantly microporous and exhibit high surface areas. Moreover, different building blocks can generate materials with different pore structures, functional groups and application properties, which are significant for materials design.

A New Strategy to Microporous Polymers: Knitting Rigid Aromatic Building Blocks by External Cross-Linker