Recent advances of covalent organic frameworks-based photocatalysts: Principles, designs, and applications

Abstract

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) semiconductor materials have garnered significant attention in solar to chemical energy conversion owing to their unique properties, including structural tunability, pre-design capability, large surface area, abundant pore structures, high crystallinity, excellent chemical stability, suitable energy-band structure, fast charge carrier transfer and so on. These intrinsic features endow COFs with the remarkable candidates for various photocatalytic applications including photocatalytic H₂ generation from water reduction, CO₂ reduction, degradation of organic pollutants, N₂ fixation, H₂O₂ evolution, and even organic synthesis. Here, this review comprehensively summarizes the recent advancements in COF-based materials for the above photocatalytic reactions, including the historic overview of the COF in the photocatalysis field, the fundamentals and design philosophy of COF-based photocatalysts, the advances of synthesis strategies, the structural characteristics and diversities, the practical applications in various photocatalytic fields as well as the challenges and future development direction in terms of COFs material and application perspectives. We sincerely hope this review can offer symbolic guidelines for future development COF semiconductor materials in this promising field.