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Covalent organic frameworks

Growing honeycombs on graphene

Nature Nanotechnology volume 6, pages 333–335 (2011)Cite this article

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Layered films of two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks with accessible and aligned pores can be created on graphene surfaces using a solvothermal condensation reaction.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of highly porous, purely organic crystalline materials that are held together by covalent bonds between boronic acids and polyalcohols. COFs can exhibit high thermal stability and the size of their pores can be precisely tuned — properties that make them promising candidates for gas storage, separation and catalysis1. One of the most exciting features of some COFs is a framework made up of π-stacked aromatic building blocks that creates porous networks with electronically coupled 'walls'. This property has recently inspired researchers to create the first semiconducting and photoconducting COFs using pyrene (a flat hydrocarbon made up of four fused benzene rings) building blocks2. COFs containing phthalocyanines3 (large, planar macrocycles) and metallophthalocyanines4 have also recently been reported, and the nickel–phthalocyanine-based COFs fabricated were the first crystalline porous frameworks to exhibit high charge-carrier mobilities4. All of these systems were, however, synthesized as bulk powders, with no control over the orientation of the pore system. As a result, it has not been possible to use COFs in functional devices such as photovoltaic cells or chemical sensors.

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Figure 1: The synthesis of a covalent organic framework known as COF-5 on single-layer graphene.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mirjam Dogru and Thomas Bein are in the Department of Chemistry and Center for NanoScience, University of Munich (LMU), Butenandtstr. 5-13 (E), 81377 Munich, Germany.,

    Mirjam Dogru & Thomas Bein

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  1. Mirjam Dogru
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  2. Thomas Bein
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Correspondence to Thomas Bein.

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Dogru, M., Bein, T. Growing honeycombs on graphene. Nature Nanotech 6, 333–335 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.86

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