Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are of interest for many applications originating from their mechanically robust architectures, low density, and high accessible surface area. Depending on their linkers and binding patterns, COFs mainly exhibit microporosity, even though COFs with small mesopores have been reported using extended linkers. For some applications, especially when fast mass transport is desired, hierarchical pore structures are an ideal solution, e.g., with small micropores providing large surface areas and larger macropores providing unhindered transport to and from the materials surface. Herein, we have developed a facile strategy for the fabrication of crystalline COFs with inherent microporosity and template-induced, homogeneously distributed, yet tunable, macroporous structures. This method has been successfully applied to obtain various β-ketoenamine-based COFs with interconnected macro–microporous structures. The as-synthesized macroporous COFs preserve high crystallinity with high specific surface area. When bipyridine moieties are introduced into the COF backbone, metals such as Co2+ can be coordinated within the hierarchical pore structure (macro-TpBpy-Co). The resulting macro-TpBpy-Co exhibits a high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity, which is much improved compared to the purely microporous COF with a competitive overpotential of 380 mV at 10 mA/cm2. This can be attributed to the improved mass diffusion properties in the hierarchically porous COF structures, together with the easily accessible active Co2+-bipyridine sites.

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The fabrication of macroscopic objects from covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is challenging but of great significance to fully exploit their chemical functionality and porosity. Herein, COF/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) aerogels synthesized by a hydrothermal approach are presented. The COFs grow in situ along the surface of the 2D graphene sheets, which are stacked in a 3D fashion, forming an ultralight aerogel with a hierarchical porous structure after freeze-drying, which can be compressed and expanded several times without breaking. The COF/rGO aerogels show excellent absorption capacity (uptake of >200 g organic solvent/g aerogel), which can be used for removal of various organic liquids from water. Moreover, as active material of supercapacitor devices, the aerogel delivers a high capacitance of 269 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 and cycling stability over 5000 cycles.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have emerged as an important class of organic semiconductors and photocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)from water.T oo ptimize their photocatalytic activity,t ypically the organic moieties constituting the frameworks are considered and the most suitable combinations of them are searched for. However,t he effect of the covalent linkage between these moieties on the photocatalytic performance has rarely been studied. Herein, we demonstrate that donor-acceptor (D-A) type imine-linked COFs can produce hydrogen with ar ate as high as 20.7 mmol g À1 h À1 under visible light irradiation, upon protonation of their imine linkages.Asignificant red-shift in light absorbance,largely improved charge separation efficiency,a nd an increase in hydrophilicity triggered by protonation of the Schiff-base moieties in the imine-linked COFs,a re responsible for the improved photocatalytic performance.

Crystalline and porous covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with donor-acceptor moieties in their backbone are utilized as initiators for visible light induced radical polymerization. The COFs are efficient photoinitiators, maintaining their structural integrity for several cycles.