The microporosity of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is tailored using a facile synthetic approach that introduces alkyl functionalities into the pore and generates networks with pore diameters between 1-2 nm. The added substituents significantly alter the host-guest properties of the resulting materials.

Two new chemically stable [acid and base] 2D crystalline covalent organic frameworks (COFs) (TpPa-1 and TpPa-2) were synthesized using combined reversible and irreversible organic reactions. Syntheses of these COFs were done by the Schiff base reactions of 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol (Tp) with p-phenylenediamine (Pa-1) and 2,5-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (Pa-2), respectively, in 1:1 mesitylene/dioxane. The expected enol-imine (OH) form underwent irreversible proton tautomerism, and only the keto-enamine form was observed. Because of the irreversible nature of the total reaction and the absence of an imine bond in the system, TpPa-1 and TpPa-2 showed strong resistance toward acid (9 N HCl) and boiling water. Moreover, TpPa-2 showed exceptional stability in base (9 N NaOH) as well.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been designed and successfully synthesized by condensation reactions of phenyl diboronic acid {C6H4[B(OH)2]2} and hexahydroxytriphenylene [C18H6(OH)6]. Powder x-ray diffraction studies of the highly crystalline products (C3H2BO)6.(C9H12)1 (COF-1) and C9H4BO2 (COF-5) revealed expanded porous graphitic layers that are either staggered (COF-1, P6(3)/mmc) or eclipsed (COF-5, P6/mmm). Their crystal structures are entirely held by strong bonds between B, C, and O atoms to form rigid porous architectures with pore sizes ranging from 7 to 27 angstroms. COF-1 and COF-5 exhibit high thermal stability (to temperatures up to 500 degrees to 600 degrees C), permanent porosity, and high surface areas (711 and 1590 square meters per gram, respectively).

Condensation of hydrazine with 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(4-formylphenyl)pyrene under solvothermal conditions yields highly crystalline two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks. The pyrene units occupy the vertices and the diazabutadiene (-C horizontal lineN-N horizontal lineC-) linkers locate the edges of rohmbic-shaped polygon sheets, which further stack in an AA-stacking mode to constitute periodically ordered pyrene columns and one-dimensional microporous channels. The azine-linked frameworks feature permanent porosity with high surface area and exhibit outstanding chemical stability. By virtue of the pyrene columnar ordering, the azine-linked frameworks are highly luminescent, whereas the azine units serve as open docking sites for hydrogen-bonding interactions. These synergestic functions of the vertices and edge units endow the azine-linked pyrene frameworks with extremely high sensitivity and selectivity in chemosensing, for example, the selective detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol explosive. We anticipate that the extension of the present azine-linked strategy would not only increase the structural diversity but also expand the scope of functions based on this highly stable class of covalent organic frameworks.

Crystallinity and porosity are crucial for crystalline porous covalent organic frameworks (COFs). Here we report synthetic control over the crystallinity and porosity of COFs by managing interlayer interactions based on self-complementary pi-electronic forces. Fluoro-substituted and nonsubstituted aromatic units at different molar ratios were integrated into the edge units that stack to trigger self-complementary pi-electronic interactions in the COFs. The interactions improve the crystallinity and enhance the porosity by maximizing the total crystal stacking energy and minimizing the unit cell size. Consequently, the COF consisting of equimolar amounts of fluoro-substituted and nonsubstituted units showed the largest effect. These results suggest a new approach to the design of COFs by managing the interlayer interactions.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are crystalline porous solids with well-defined two- or three-dimensional molecular structures. Although the structural regularity provides this new type of porous material with high potentials in catalysis, no example has been presented so far. Herein, we report the first application of a new COF material, COF-LZU1, for highly efficient catalysis. The easily prepared imine-linked COF-LZU1 possesses a two-dimensional eclipsed layered-sheet structure, making its incorporation with metal ions feasible. Via a simple post-treatment, a Pd(II)-containing COF, Pd/COF-LZU1, was accordingly synthesized, which showed excellent catalytic activity in catalyzing the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction. The superior utility of Pd/COF-LZU1 in catalysis was elucidated by the broad scope of the reactants and the excellent yields (96-98%) of the reaction products, together with the high stability and easy recyclability of the catalyst. We expect that our approach will further boost research on designing and employing functional COF materials for catalysis.

A three-dimensional covalent organic framework (COF-505) constructed from helical organic threads, designed to be mutually weaving at regular intervals, has been synthesized by imine condensation reactions of aldehyde functionalized copper(I)-bisphenanthroline tetrafluoroborate, Cu(PDB)2(BF4), and benzidine (BZ). The copper centers are topologically independent of the weaving within the COF structure and serve as templates for bringing the threads into a woven pattern rather than the more commonly observed parallel arrangement. The copper(I) ions can be reversibly removed and added without loss of the COF structure, for which a tenfold increase in elasticity accompanies its demetalation. The threads in COF-505 have many degrees of freedom for enormous deviations to take place between them, throughout the material, without undoing the weaving of the overall structure.

Condensation of 2,5-diethoxyterephthalohydrazide with 1,3,5-triformylbenzene or 1,3,5-tris(4-formylphenyl)benzene yields two new covalent organic frameworks, COF-42 and COF-43, in which the organic building units are linked through hydrazone bonds to form extended two-dimensional porous frameworks. Both materials are highly crystalline, display excellent chemical and thermal stability, and are permanently porous. These new COFs expand the scope of possibilities for this emerging class of porous materials.

Two-dimensional (2D) polymers assemble organic subunits into covalently linked, high-aspect-ratio networks with long-range order. Despite recent advances in 2D polymerization, scalable and general methods to access few- and single-layer materials are limited. Here we exfoliate a hydrazone-linked covalent organic framework (COF) to yield bulk quantities of few-layer two-dimensional (2D) polymers. Immersing the COF powder in several laboratory solvents exfoliates and disperses thin COF-43 samples, which maintain their characteristic periodic hexagonal structure. This phenomenon was characterized using infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and selected area electron diffraction. 2D COFs with reduced interlayer interaction energies offer a new means to access high-aspect-ratio 2D polymers whose structure may be designed using established principles of COF synthesis.

Heavy metal ions are highly toxic and widely spread as environmental pollutants. New strategies are being developed to simultaneously detect and remove these toxic ions. Herein, we take the intrinsic advantage of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and develop fluorescent COFs for sensing applications. As a proof-of-concept, a thioether-functionalized COF material, COF-LZU8, was

The covalent triazine framework, CTF-1, served as host material for the in situ synthesis of Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The composite material consisted of 20+/-2m% iron, mainly in gamma-Fe2O3 phase. The resulting gamma-Fe2O3@CTF-1 was examined for the adsorption of As(III), As(V) and Hg(II) from synthetic solutions and real surface-, ground- and wastewater. The material shows excellent removal efficiencies, independent from the presence of Ca(2+), Mg(2+) or natural organic matter and only limited dependency on the presence of phosphate ions. Its adsorption capacity towards arsenite (198.0mgg(-1)), arsenate (102.3mgg(-1)) and divalent mercury (165.8mgg(-1)) belongs amongst the best-known adsorbents, including many other iron-based materials. Regeneration of the adsorbent can be achieved for use over multiple cycles without a decrease in performance by elution at 70 degrees C with 0.1M NaOH, followed by a stirring step in a 5m% H2O2 solution for As or 0.1M thiourea and 0.001M HCl for Hg. In highly contaminated water (100mugL(-1)), the adsorbent polishes the water quality to well below the current WHO limits.

A key challenge in environmental remediation is the design of adsorbents bearing an abundance of accessible chelating sites with high affinity, to achieve both rapid uptake and high capacity for the contaminants. Herein, we demonstrate how two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with well-defined mesopore structures display the right combination of properties to serve as a scaffold for decorating coordination sites to create ideal adsorbents. The proof-of-concept design is illustrated by modifying sulfur derivatives on a newly designed vinyl-functionalized mesoporous COF (COF-V) via thiol-ene

Capture of radioactive TcO4(-) from nuclear wastes is extremely desirable for waste disposal and environmental restoration. Here, we report the synthesis of hydrolytically stable cationic covalent organic nanosheets (iCON) for efficient uptake of ReO4(-), a nonradioactive surrogate of TcO4(-). The iCON combines cationic guanidine-based knots with hydroxyl anchored neutral edge units and chloride ions loosely bonded in the pores, rendering extremely fast exchange kinetics toward ReO4(-) with high uptake capacity of 437 mg g(-1) and prominent distribution coefficient of 5.0 x 10(5). The removal efficiency remains stable over a pH range of 3-12 and allows selective capture of ReO4(-) in the presence of excessive competing anions such as NO3(-), CO3(2-), PO4(3-) and SO4(2-) with good removal efficiency for ReO4(-) in a simulated Hanford LAW Melter Recycle Stream. Anion exchange between the ReO4(-) in solution and the chloride ion in iCON plays dominant role in the adsorption of ReO4(-). The iCON shows promise for effective removal of radioactive (99)Tc from nuclear waste.

We demonstrate the successful functionalization of a porous aromatic framework for uranium extraction from water as exemplified by grafting PAF-1 with the uranyl chelating amidoxime group. The resultant amidoxime-functionalized PAF-1 (PAF-1-CH2AO) exhibits a high uranium uptake capacity of over 300 mg g(-1) and effectively reduces the uranyl concentration from 4.1 ppm to less than 1.0 ppb in aqueous solutions within 90 min, well below the acceptable limit of 30 ppb set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The local coordination environment of uranium in PAF-1-CH2AO is revealed by X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopic studies, which suggest the cooperative binding between UO2(2+) and adjacent amidoxime species.

Most of current absorbents are difficult to hold favorable stability and functionality simultaneously when used in condition of high acidity and strong radiation existing in nuclear industry. Herein, a new graphene-synergized 2D covalent organic framework (GS-COF) was obtained via an in-situ loading of a covalent organic framework (TDCOF) on graphene sheets based on a mutual promotion strategy proposed in this work. The corresponding oximation products, o-GS-COF, and also o-TDCOF as a reference object, were respectively prepared subsequently. The results of experiments confirmed that o-GS-COF possesses better acid and irradiation stability than that of o-TDCOF. Adsorption experiments showed that the adsorption capacity of o-GS-COF for uranium is 144.2mgg(-1), higher than that of GO (92.5mgg(-1)) and o-TDCOF (105.0mgg(-1)), and the maximum adsorption capacity reaches 220.1mgg(-1). In the multi-ions system, o-GS-COF also displayed good selective adsorption property for uranium with SFU/M 35-100 for 5 coexisting divalent metal ions and 14-18 for 5 coexisting trivalent lanthanide ions. The proposed strategy successfully achieved the synergistic improvement of both stability and functionality for the desired adsorbing materials and is of considerable practical utility in the field of design and preparation of reliable high-performance absorbents.

Access to clean, affordable and reliable energy has been a cornerstone of the world's increasing prosperity and economic growth since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Our use of energy in the twenty-first century must also be sustainable. Solar and water-based energy generation, and engineering of microbes to produce biofuels are a few examples of the alternatives. This Perspective puts these opportunities into a larger context by relating them to a number of aspects in the transportation and electricity generation sectors. It also provides a snapshot of the current energy landscape and discusses several research and development opportunities and pathways that could lead to a prosperous, sustainable and secure energy future for the world.

A covalent organic framework (COF) featuring a unique light porous structure and silver nanoparticles shows high efficiency in the degradation of environmental pollutants. However, the combination of a COF with silver nanoparticles has never been reported until now. Toward this end, 2,4,6-tris-(4-formylphenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TPT-CHO) and hydrazine hydrate were selected as the construction units of the COF material (TPHH-COF), which possesses rich nitrogen and oxygen sites. Then a new type of composite catalyst (Ag@TPHH-COF) was successfully obtained by solution infiltration. The obtained materials were also fully characterized by standard methods. The results showed that the silver nanoparticles (with diameters of 5 +/- 3 nm) were uniformly dispersed on the surface and in the interlayer gaps of the TPHH-COF substrate. Catalytic studies showed that Ag@TPHH-COF could catalyze the reduction of the various nitroaromatic compounds (NACs) with high efficiency, such as 4-nitrophenol, 2-nitrophenol, 4-nitroaniline, nitrobenzene, 4-nitrotoluene and 1-butyl-4-nitrobenzene. Ag@TPHH-COF could also catalyze the reduction of organic dyes such as Rhodamine B (RhB), Methylene Blue (MB), Methyl Orange (MO) and Congo Red (CR). Moreover, Ag@TPHH-COF has good reusability and high recovery.

Novel metal-free catalysts via integration of covalent organic framework (COF) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4@COF) with a high graphitization degree and nitrogen content were fabricated and exhibited an outstanding activity in a wide pH range for peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-driven oxidation of refractory organic pollutants in water. Scanning electron microscopy images showed many aggregated COFs crystals anchored on the irregular g-C3N4 surface to form 3D structures. The precursors (urea, melamine, and dicyandiamide) of g-C3N4 determined the porous structures and properties of the g-C3N4@COF materials. The hybrids possessed superior reactivity in Orange II removal (100%) compared to pristine g-C3N4 (10%) and COF (5%), benefiting from high-temperature pyrolysis to generate crystal carbon and modulate nitrogen doping. Besides, removal efficiency of target pollutants depended on the oxidant dosages (0.33-1.30mM), initial concentrations of organics (10-40mg/L), temperatures (5-45 degrees C), pHs (1.72-10.3), and anions (Cl(-), SO4(2-), NO3(-), HCO3(-), CO3(2-), and HCOO(-)). Quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance demonstrated that non-radical singlet oxygen ((1)O2) was the dominant species for the oxidation of organic pollutants via electron transfer in the g-C3N4@COF/PMS system. It was inferred that the good balance between graphitization degree and nitrogen content benefited to enhancing the catalytic performance for the refractory pollutant degradation. The present investigation provides a new avenue for the design and construction of metal-free hybrid composites for environmental remediation.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are porous crystalline materials composed of light elements linked by strong covalent bonds. A number of these materials contain a high density of Lewis acid boron sites that can strongly interact with Lewis basic guests, which makes them ideal for the storage of corrosive chemicals such as ammonia. We found that a member of the covalent organic framework family, COF-10, shows the highest uptake capacity (15 mol kg(-)(1), 298 K, 1 bar) of any porous material, including microporous 13X zeolite (9 mol kg(-)(1)), Amberlyst 15 (11 mol kg(-)(1)) and mesoporous silica, MCM-41 (7.9 mol kg(-)(1)). Notably, ammonia can be removed from the pores of COF-10 by heating samples at 200 degrees C under vacuum. In addition, repeated adsorption of ammonia into COF-10 causes a shift in the interlayer packing, which reduces its apparent surface area to nitrogen. However, owing to the strong Lewis acid-base interactions, the total uptake capacity of ammonia and the structural integrity of the COF are maintained after several cycles of adsorption/desorption.

Removing sulfur dioxide (SO2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil fuel power plants is an important issue given the toxicity of SO2 and subsequent environmental problems. To address this issue, we successfully developed a new series of imide-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) that have high mesoporosity with large surface areas to support gas flowing through channels; furthermore, we incorporated 4-[(dimethylamino)methyl]aniline (DMMA) as the modulator to the imide-linked COF. We observed that the functionalized COFs serving as SO2 adsorbents exhibit outstanding molar SO2 sorption capacity, i.e., PI-COF-m10 record 6.30 mmol SO2 g(-1) (40 wt%). To our knowledge, it is firstly reported COF as SO2 sorbent to date. We also observed that the adsorbed SO2 is completely desorbed in a short time period with remarkable reversibility. These results suggest that channel-wall functional engineering could be a facile and powerful strategy for developing mesoporous COFs for high-performance reproducible gas storage and separation.