Reconstructed covalent organic frameworks

Abstract Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are distinguished from other organic polymers by their crystallinity 1–3 , but it remains challenging to obtain robust, highly crystalline COFs because the framework-forming reactions are poorly reversible 4,5 . More reversible chemistry can improve crystallinity 6–9 , but this typically yields COFs with poor physicochemical stability and limited application scope 5 . Here we report a general and scalable protocol to prepare robust, highly crystalline imine COFs, based on an unexpected framework reconstruction. In contrast to standard approaches in which monomers are initially randomly aligned, our method involves the pre-organization of monomers using a reversible…

• LT
  Leverhulme Trust
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 21788102, 21636002, 21905091, 2018SHZDZX03
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Sciences
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Awards: 2019M651418, 21788102
• EC
  East China University of Science and Technology
• LR
  Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design
• EA
  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Awards: EP/N004884/1, EP/S017623/1, EP/P034497/1, EP/P034497/1, EPSRC) (EP/N004884/1, EP/N004884/1, EP/N004884
• PF
  Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning