Progress in synthesis of highly crystalline covalent organic frameworks and their crystallinity enhancement strategies

Covalent organic frameworks(COFs) have been attracting growing concerns since the first report in2005. With the well-defined and ordered structures, COFs express big potential in mass transport, storage/separation and energy conversion applications. From the perspective of both theory and application,the construction of crystalline COFs with high quality and variety is highly worth to be devoted to. To give insight into the crystalline process of COFs and deeply understand the factors of COFs cr...     

The synthesis of highly crystalline covalent organic frameworks via the monomer crystal induction for the photocatalytic asymmetric α-alkylation of aldehydes

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are ordered porous organic frameworks, which found wide applications in gas sorption and separation, catalysis, sensoring, and many others owing to their permanent porosity and designable structural motifs. To take full advantage of the well-defined porous structure, COFs need to be synthesized with high crystallinity. However, the synthesis of COFs with high crystalline is a general challenge, which requires dedicated linker design and reaction condition optimization. To achieve this, we developed a monomer crystal-induced strategy to construct crystalline COFs. The synthesized COFs have higher crystallinity, surface area, and thermal stability than those prepared without monomer crystal induction. Furthermore, the high crystalline COFs exhibit excellent performance in the photocatalytic asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes. The monomer crystal-induced method not only represents a new route for the synthesis of crystalline COFs but also sheds light on the mechanism of the formation of COFs.     

Precision Construction of 2D Heteropore Covalent Organic Frameworks by a Multiple‐Linking‐Site Strategy

Integrating different kinds of pores into one covalent organic framework (COF) endows it with hierarchical porosity and thus generates a member of a new class of COFs, namely, heteropore COFs. Whereas the construction of COFs with homoporosity has already been well developed, the fabrication of heteropore COFs still faces great challenges. Although two strategies have recently been developed to successfully construct heteropore COFs from noncyclic building blocks, they suffer from the generation of COF isomers, which decreases the predictability and controllability of construction of this type of reticular materials. In this work, this drawback was overcome by a multiple‐linking‐site strategy that offers precision construction of heteropore COFs containing two kinds of hexagonal pores with different shapes and sizes. This strategy was developed by designing a building block in which double linking sites are introduced at each branch of a C₃‐symmetric skeleton, the most widely used scaffold to construct COFs with homogeneous porosity. This design provides a general way to precisely construct heteropore COFs without formation of isomers. Furthermore, the as‐prepared heteropore COFs have hollow‐spherical morphology, which has rarely been observed for COFs, and an uncommon staggered AB stacking was observed for the layers of the 2D heteropore COFs.     

共价有机骨架材料在分离科学中的研究进展

共价有机骨架(COFs)材料是一类由有机单体通过共价键连接而成的新型多功能结晶有机聚合物,具有比表面积大、热和化学稳定性好、结构和功能可控等优点,在气体存储、药物传递、传感和催化等方面有着广泛的应用。多样的结构和丰富的官能团也使COFs在分离科学中具有巨大的应用潜力。COFs及其复合材料作为吸附剂已被用于固相萃取、磁固相萃取、固相微萃取,以及气相色谱、高效液相色谱和毛细管电色谱的新型固定相。该文综述了近3年来COFs在分离科学中的最新进展,着重介绍了COFs在水介质、食品基质、生物样本等复杂基质中样品前处理和有机分子(包括手性和异构化合物)分离等方面的研究进展,为进一步研究COFs的应用提供参考。     

Two-dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks: Tessellation by Synthetic Art

Covalent organic frameworks(COFs) featuring designable nanoporous structures exhibit many fascinating properties and have attracted great attention in recent years for their intriguing application potential in sensing, catalysis, gas storage and separation, optoelectronics, etc. Rational design of twodimensional(2D) COFs through judiciously selecting chemical building blocks is critical to acquiring predetermined skeleton and pore structures. In this perspective, we review the reticular synthesis of 2D COFs with different topologies, highlighting the important role of various characterization techniques in crystal structure determination. 2D COFs with simple tessellations have been widely investigated, while the synthesis of complex tessellated COFs is still a great challenge. Some recent examples of 2D COFs with novel topological structures are also surveyed.     

Rapid Charge Transfer Enabled by Noncovalent Interaction through Guest Insertion in Supercapacitors based on Covalent Organic Frameworks

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been proposed for electrochemical energy storage, although the poor conductivity resulted from covalent bonds limits their practical performance. Here, we propose to introduce noncovalent bonds in COFs through a molecular insertion strategy for improving the conductivity of the COFs as supercapacitor. The synthesized COFs (MI−COFs) establish equilibriums between covalent bonds and noncovalent bonds, which construct a continuous charge transfer channel to enhance the conductivity. The rapid charge transfer rate enables the COFs to activate the redox sites, bringing about excellent electrochemical energy storage behavior. The results show that the MI−COFs exhibit much better performance in specific capacitance and capacity retention rate than those of most COFs-based supercapacitors. Moreover, through simply altering inserted guests, the mode and strength of noncovalent bond can be adjusted to obtain different energy storage characteristics. The introduction of noncovalent bonds is an effective and flexible way to enhance and regulate the properties of COFs, providing a valuable direction for the development of novel COFs-based energy storage materials.     

共价-有机骨架材料在色谱及样品预处理中的应用

共价-有机骨架（COFs）材料具有比表面积大、热和化学稳定性好、结构和功能多样等优点,目前已广泛用于气体储存、催化、吸附和分离等领域。近年来,以COFs为固定相和吸附剂的色谱分离和样品预处理研究引起了人们的极大兴趣。该文综述了近年来COFs的色谱和样品预处理应用研究进展,并对这一领域进行了展望。     

Covalent Organic Framework Materials for Photo/ Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction北大核心CSCD

Covalent organic frameworks （COFs）are a class of emerging materials connected by covalent bonds,which have high thermal/chemical stability （except boric acid COFs）,permanent porosity,large specific surface area and good crystallinity. In addition,the structure of the monomer unit in COFs is adjustable and can coordinate with many transition metal ions to provide catalytic active sites. These advantages make COFs helpful to catalyze various reactions. Among them,COFs have an excellent catalytic effect on the CO2 reduction reaction（CO2 RR）. This is mainly because the adjustable pore structure of COFs allows them to adsorb a large amount of CO2 and the π-π stacking structure in COFs can promote charge transfer, which can greatly improve the efficiency of CO2 reduction. COFs can be used as photo/ electrocatalysts to efficiently reduce CO2 to CO,CH4 ,HCOOH and other products. This review discusses the important achievements of CO2 RR catalyzed by COFs, including photo/electrocatalytic CO2 RR and photoelectric coupling CO2 RR. In addition,the future development of COFs as CO2 RR catalysts is also prospected. © 2022, Science Press (China). All rights reserved.     

Construction of Covalent‐Organic Frameworks (COFs) from Amorphous Covalent Organic Polymers via Linkage Replacement

Covalent‐organic frameworks (COFs) as porous crystalline materials show promising potential applications. However, developing facile strategies for the construction of COFs directly from amorphous covalent organic polymers (COPs) is still a great challenge. To this end, we report a novel approach for easy preparation of COFs from amorphous COPs through the linkage replacement under different types of reactions. Four COFs with high crystallinity and porosity were constructed via the linkage substitution of polyimide‐linked COPs to imine‐linked COFs as well as imine‐linked COPs to polyimide‐linked COFs. The realization of the linkage substitution would significantly expand the research scope of COFs.     

Semiconducting covalent organic frameworks: a type of two-dimensional conducting polymers

In recent years,as a new class of two-dimensional polymer,covalent organic frameworks(COFs) have attracted intensive attention and developed rapidly.This review provides an overview of a type of COFs which can be utilized as organic semiconductors.Carefully choosing monomers as the building blocks will bestow different types of semiconducting character on COFs.We summarize the p-type,n-type and ambipolar semiconducting COFs and highlight the effects of π-functional building blocks on the photoconductive behaviors of the semiconducting COFs.     

Crystallinity and stability of covalent organic frameworks

Covalent organic frameworks(COFs) are a class of organic porous polymers with high crystallinity, and their structures can be precisely tailored via topology design. Owing to the characteristics of permanent pores, periodic structures and rich building blocks, COFs have triggered tremendous attention in the past fifteen years and are extensively investigated in various fields.Crystallinity and stability are two crucial features for practical applications. In general, these two features are contradictory for COFs formed via dynamic covalent chemistry(DCC). High thermodynamic reversibility is usually required to attain exceptional crystallinity of COFs, often resulting in limited stability. The first two reported COFs are based on the boroxine and boronate ester linkages, which are unstable in water and even in humid conditions. Therefore, many researchers doubt the stability of COFs for real applications. Actually, in these years, various novel linkages have been developed for the construction of COFs,and numerous newly synthesized COFs are robust towards strong acid/base and even some of them can resist the attack of strong oxidizing and reducing agents. In this review, we focus on the linkage chemistry of the COFs in terms of crystallinity and stability, further extending it to the investigation in the mechanisms of the crystal growth and the overall regulation of the contradiction between stability and crystallinity. The strategies for improving the crystallinity, including selecting building units,introducing non-covalent interactions and slowing nucleation and growth rate, are described in the third section, while the methodologies for increasing the stability from the viewpoints of chemical modification and non-covalent interactions are summarized in the fourth section. Finally, the challenges and perspectives are presented.     

Stable hydrazone-linked chiral covalent organic frameworks: Synthesis,modification, and chiral signal inversion from monomers

The designed synthesis of chiral covalent organic frameworks(COFs) featuring intriguing properties is fairly scant and remains a daunting synthetic challenge.Here we develop a de novo synthesis of an enantiomeric pair of 2 D hydroxyl-functionalized hydrazone-linked chiral COFs,(S)-and(R)-HthBta-OH COFs,using enantiopure 2,5-bis(2-hydroxypropoxy)terephthalohydrazide(Hth) as monomers.The fo rmation process of hydroxyl-functionalized chiral COFs was monitored using rigorous time-dependent PXRD,vibrational circular dichroism(VCD),and electronic circular dichroism(ECD) studies.Remarkably,VCD spectra indicated a unique chiral signal inversion from the positive Cotton effect of(S)-Hth monomer to the negative Cotton effect of(S)-HthBta-OH COF,which has never been reported in chiral COFs.Moreover,two unprecedented carboxyl-functionalized chiral COFs,(S)-and(R)-HthBta-COOH,were constructed by a post-synthetic modification of the corresponding hydroxyl chiral COFs with succinic anhydride.Notably,carboxyl-functionalized COFs retained homochirality and crystallinity without linker racemization and structural collapse after the chemical modification due to the chemically robust nature of pristine hydrazone-linked chiral COFs.     

共价有机框架材料在光催化领域中的应用

共价有机框架(COFs)材料是有机构筑基元通过共价键连接而形成的晶态有机多孔材料. COFs具有孔道结构规整、 及比表面积高等特点, 被广泛地应用于气体储存与分离、 催化、 传感、 储能及光电转化等领域. 将具有可调吸光能力的有机构筑基元引入到COFs中, 可使其展现出强大的光催化潜力. 近年来, COFs在光催化领域中发展迅猛. 本文总结了COFs在光催化产氢、 光催化二氧化碳还原、 光催化有机反应以及光催化污染物降解等方面的研究进展, 并展望了其在光催化领域的应用前景.     

Linkages Make a Difference in the Photoluminescence of Covalent Organic Frameworks

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with structural designability and tunability of photophysical properties enable them to be a promising class of organic luminescent materials by incorporating well-designed fluorescent units directly into the periodic skeletons. The photophysical properties of COFs are mainly affected by the structural features, which determine the conjugation degree, charge delocalization ability, and exciton dynamics of COFs. To understand the relationship between COF structures and their photophysical properties, two COFs with the same pyrene chromophore units but different linkages (imine or vinylene) were designed and synthesized. Interestingly, different linkages endow COFs with huge differences in solid-state photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) for imine- and vinylene-linked pyrene-based COFs, which possess PLQY values of 0.34 % and 15.43 %, respectively. The femtosecond-transient absorption spectra and time-dependent density functional theory reveal the different charge-transfer pathways in imine- and vinylene-linked COFs, which influence the exciton relaxation way and fluorescence intensity. In addition, an effective white-light device was obtained by coating the vinylene-linked COF on a light-emitting diode strip.     

Isomeric Oligo(Phenylenevinylene)-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks with Different Orientation of Imine Bonds and Distinct Photocatalytic Activities

Imine-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been extensively studied in photocatalysis because of their easy synthesis and excellent crystallinity. The effect of imine-bond orientation on the photocatalytic properties of COFs, however, is still rarely studied. Herein, we report two novel COFs with different orientations of imine bonds using oligo(phenylenevinylene) moieties. The COFs showed similar structures but great differences in their photoelectric properties. COF-932 demonstrated a superior hydrogen evolution performance compared to COF-923 when triethanolamine was used as the sacrificial agent. Interestingly, the use of ascorbic acid led to the protonation of the COFs, further altering the direction of electron transfer. The photocatalytic performances were increased to 23.4 and 0.73 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ for protonated COF-923 and COF-932, respectively. This study provides a clear strategy for the design of imine-linked COF-based photocatalysts and advances the development of COFs.     

A Novel Strategy for the Construction of Covalent Organic Frameworks from Nonporous Covalent Organic Polymers

The field of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) has been developed significantly in the past decade on account of their important characteristics and vast application potential. On the other hand, the discovery of novel synthetic methodology is still a challenging task to further promote the preparation of COFs. Herein, an interesting protocol for the conversion of amorphous nonporous covalent organic polymers (COPs) to COFs was established, affording four COFs with high crystallinity and porosity. Specifically, imine‐linked amorphous COP‐1 was successfully converted to COF‐1–4 by replacing one type of linker with other organic building blocks. The realization of this conversion provides a facile method for constructing COFs from COPs.     

共价有机框架材料研究进展

共价有机框架材料是一类具有周期性和结晶性的有机多孔聚合物。共价有机框架材料由轻质元素通过共价键连接,拥有较低的密度、高的热稳定性以及固有的多孔性,在气体吸附、非均相催化、能量存储等研究领域有着广泛的应用潜力,引起了科学界强烈的研究兴趣。本文主要综述了近年来共价有机框架材料的最新研究进展,包括其结构设计、合成、纯化、表征以及在气体吸附,催化及光电等方面的应用,并对共价有机框架材料未来的发展趋势进行了展望。     

Bromine-Functionalized Covalent Organic Frameworks for Efficient Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) enable precise integration of various organic building blocks into porous skeletons through topology predesign. Here, we report the first example of COFs by integrating electron withdrawing bromine group onto the skeletons for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG). The resulting framework exhibits high surface area and good crystallinity. Thus, the bromine functionalized COF has more regular aligned π columns and arrays over the skeleton than bare COFs, which in turn significantly enhances charge transport ability. As a result, bromine functionalized COFs showed higher electrical output performance at 5 Hz with a peak value of short circuit current density of 43.6 μA and output voltage of 416 V, which is 2 and 1.3 times higher than those of bare COFs (21.6 μA and 318 V), respectively. These results demonstrated that this strategy for engineering electron withdrawing groups on the skeleton could open a new aspect of COFs for developing TENG devices.     

Gas–Solid Heterogeneous Postsynthetic Modification of Imine-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks

The copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction is among the most extensively used strategies for the post-polymerization modification of COFs. This work shows a new procedure for the postsynthetic functionalization of imine-based COFs by using a heterogeneous solid–gas reaction between alkyne-functionalized COFs and azides in the absence of a copper catalyst. This new alternative represents a step forward towards a greener postsynthetic modification of COFs opening a high potential for the development of new applications.     

Enhanced hydrolytic stability of self-assembling alkylated two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks

The stability and bulk properties of two-dimensional boronate ester-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) were investigated upon exposure to aqueous environments. Enhanced stability was observed for frameworks with alkylation in the pores of the COF compared to nonalkylated, bare-pore frameworks. COF-18? and COF-5 were analyzed as "bare-pore" COFs, while COF-16? (methyl), COF-14? (ethyl), and COF-11? (propyl) were evaluated as "alkylated-pore" materials. Upon submersion in aqueous media, the porosity of alkylated COFs decreased ～25%, while the nonalkylated COFs were almost completely hydrolyzed, virtually losing all porosity. Similar trends were observed for the degree of crystallinity for these materials, with ～40% decrease for alkylated COFs and 95% decrease for nonalkylated COFs. SEM was used to probe the particle size and morphology for these hydrolyzed materials. Stability tests, using absorbance spectroscopy and (1)H NMR, monitored the release of monomers as the COF degraded. While nonalkylated COFs were stable in organic solvent, hydrolysis was rapid in aqueous environments, more so in basic compared to neutral or acidic aqueous media (minutes to hours, respectively). Notably, alkylation in the pores of COFs slows hydrolysis, exhibiting up to a 50-fold enhancement in stability for COF-11? over COF-18?.