Two-Dimensional Covalent Polymers and Organic Frameworks: Opportunity and Challenge

Two-dimensional covalent polymers and organic frameworks are a class of crystalline polymers that enable the incorporation of organic building blocks into periodically aligned primary and high-order structures. In recent years, we have explored the design principle, synthetic reactions, structural diversity, functional design and materials applications.^[1-9] One significant feature is that the merge of covalent bonds and noncovalent interactions enables the precise control over primary and high-order structures. The geometry-directed covalent bonding enables the growth of two-dimensional atomic layer in which the primary-order structures are precisely controlled. The noncovalent π-π interactions guided by the total crystal stacking energy encode the ordered primary-order structure into high-order structures to construct periodically aligned polymer skeletons and nanosized unidirectional channels. In this seminar, I will discuss the opportunity and challenge of COFs as a multiple functional materials platform.