Photochemical Synthesis of Covalent Organic Frameworks

As a booming class of crystalline porous materials, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have attracted increasing attention and various methods to construct COFs have been investigated including solvothermal synthesis, ionothermal synthesis, microwave synthesis, mechanical synthesis, sonochemical synthesis, interfacial synthesis, and electrochemical synthesis. Recently, photochemical reaction has emerged as a powerful approach for COF synthesis, which utilizing the non-toxic, abundant and renewable light as the energy source. Benefitting from its outstanding properties of low-cost, safety, and environmental friendliness, the photochemical reaction was considered as a promising alternative to the conventional thermal reaction for COF synthesis. In this concept article, we summarized the up-to-date reports about the photochemical synthesis of COFs and provided a future perspective in this field. It is anticipated that this concept could be beneficial for the further development of photochemical synthesis of COFs.