Aqueous Synthesis of Covalent Organic Frameworks as Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Peroxide Production

Covalent organic frameworks(COFs)are crystalline porous polymers with designable structures and properties.Their crystallization typically relies on trialand-error experimentation involving harsh conditions,including organic solvents,presenting significant obstacles for rational design and large-scale production.Herein,we present a liquid crystal-directed synthesis methodology and its implementation for up to gram-scale production of highly crystalline COFs in water and air.It is compatible with monomers of different structures,shape,size,length of side chains,and electron-donating,electron-accepting,and heterocyclic substitutions near reactive sites.Seventeen types of donor-acceptor two-dimensional COFs including four types of new ones and a three-dimensional COF with a yield of up to 94%were demonstrated,showing great generality of the method.The as-synthesized donor-acceptor COFs are organic semiconductors and contain macropores besides intrinsic mesopores which make them attractive catalysts.The production of H_(2)O_(2)under visible light in water was studied and the structure-property relationships were revealed.The production rate reached 4347μmol h^(−1)gcat^(−1),which is about 467%better than that of the benchmark photocatalyst g-C_(3)N_(4).This study will inspire the mild synthesis and scale-up of a wide spectrum of COFs and organic semiconductors as efficient catalysts,promote their structure-property investigation,and boost their applications.