UniSysCat researchers have developed hierarchically porous covalent organic frameworks (COFs) for the first time. These materials feature small pores (< 2 nm) providing a high accessible surface area with abundant active sites and additionally larger pores (> 100 nm) for efficient mass transport through the material. The pore walls of these COFs can be equipped with metal-coordinating moieties to immobilize a range of molecular catalysts. The benefit of introducing large macropores in the otherwise purely nanoporous COFs was proven by the enhanced catalytic activity of a hierarchically porous, Cobalt-bipyridine-linked COF for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The work results from the interdisciplinary collaboration between the groups of Arne Thomas (Functional Materials, Institute of Chemistry) and Birgit Kanngießer (Analytical X-Ray Physics, Institute of Physics) at Technische Universität Berlin.
Macro/Microporous Covalent Organic Frameworks for Efficient Electrocatalysis
X. Zhao, P. Pachfule, S. Li, T. Langenhahn, M. Ye, C. Schlesiger, S. Praetz, J. Schmidt, A. Thomas
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b01226
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2019 American Chemical Society.