Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The research interest in covalent organic frameworks (COFs) has grown rapidly in the past decade. As a unique class of cross-linked polymers, COFs distinguish themselves from conventional polymers with precise skeleton periodicity, tailor-made pore metrics, and lightweight organic backbones, which render COFs as an auspicious platform for engineering functional materials with broad applications. One constraint to the practical applications of COF is its limited chemical stability, which ties to the inherent properties of the linking chemistries that are generally thermodynamically reversible. Progress in improving the chemical robustness of COFs presents an important step toward fully unleashing their potential for intricate energy and environmentally related applications.