Two-dimensional semiconducting covalent organic frameworks via condensation at arylmethyl carbon atoms.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31171795.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-10504-6 and PMC identifier 6554277.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Construction of organic semiconducting materials with in-plane π-conjugated structures and robustness through carbon-carbon bond linkages, alternatively as organic graphene analogs, is extremely desired for powerfully optoelectrical conversion. However, the poor reversibility for sp<sup>2</sup> carbon bond forming reactions makes them unavailable for building high crystalline well-defined organic structures through a self-healing process, such as covalent organic frameworks (COFs). Here we report a scalable solution-processing approach to synthesize a family of two-dimensional (2D) COFs with trans-disubstituted C = C linkages via condensation reaction at arylmethyl carbon atoms on the basis of 3,5-dicyano-2,4,6-trimethylpyridine and linear/trigonal aldehyde (i.e., 4,4″-diformyl-p-terphenyl, 4,4'-diformyl-1,1'-biphenyl, or 1,3,5-tris(4-formylphenyl)benzene) monomers. Such sp<sup>2</sup> carbon-jointed-pyridinyl frameworks, featuring crystalline honeycomb-like structures with high surface areas, enable driving two half-reactions of water splitting separately under visible light irradiation, comparable to graphitic carbon nitride (g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>) derivatives.