Covalent Organic Frameworks Based Inorganic/Organic Composite Materials for Photocatalytic Applications

As a rising class of functional porous organic materials with tunable pore structures and flexible chemical environments, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have demonstrated their tremendous potential in numerous applications, such as adsorption, water purification, heterogeneous catalysis, and organic electronics. In the field of photocatalytic applications, the association of emerging COFs with traditional inorganic catalysts can effectively combine the functionality of COFs with the stability of their inorganic counterparts to construct efficient and stable composite photocatalysts. A rapidly growing new field has been established regarding COFs-based inorganic/organic hybrid photocatalysts, which call for a timely review to summarize recent developments. In this contribution, we revisit this promising composite photocatalysts by emphasizing some recent breakthroughs in synthetic strategies and the enhanced performance in various photocatalytic applications. Simultaneously, the mechanisms of performance improvement are elucidated by analyzing the interactions between the inorganic and organic counterparts. We hope general tactics could be inspired for directing open considerations for the future design of photocatalysts and their practical implementations.