Crystallization environment : pore size tuning of new covalent organic frameworks (COFs)

Abstract

The extensive synthetic and molecular design flexibility of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) allows structural control and tuning of their morphology, regularity, atomic connectivity and porosity. Integration of building units into atomically precise structures, ensuring pore size uniformity and structural homogeneity, and channel wall functionalization, enable the tunability of the pores' diameter. Although Schiff-base imine linked COFs are structurally superior to boron-based COFs, amongst others, due to better stability and crystallinity in solvents, the effect of different chemical and physical crystallization environments on their porosity, is largely unexplored.