Photocatalytic CO2 reduction to syngas using metallosalen covalent organic frameworks.

Metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks have recently gained attention in photocatalysis. However, their use in CO2 photoreduction is yet to be reported. Moreover, facile preparation of metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks with good crystallinity remains considerably challenging. Herein, we report a series of metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks produced via a one-step synthesis strategy that does not require vacuum evacuation. Metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks possessing controllable coordination environments of mononuclear and binuclear metal sites are obtained and act as photocatalysts for tunable syngas production from CO2. Metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks obtained via one-step synthesis exhibit higher crystallinity and catalytic activities than those obtained from two-step synthesis. The optimal framework material containing cobalt and triazine achieves a syngas production rate of 19.7 mmol g-1 h-1 (11:8 H2/CO), outperforming previously reported porous crystalline materials. This study provides a facile strategy for producing metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks of high quality and can accelerate their exploration in various applications.

Conjugated microporous polymer foams with excellent thermal insulation performance in a humid environment.

This work reported two monolithic conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) foams synthesized through the Sonogashira-Hagihara cross-coupling reaction without mechanical stirring. The as-synthesized (CMP-ED and CMP-PT) foams exhibited superior hydrophobicity and low apparent density of 58 mg cm-3 and 63 mg cm-3. In addition, CMP-ED displayed a low thermal conductivity of 34.04 mW m-1 K-1, which was comparable with commercial SiO2 aerogels (34.09 mW m-1 K-1) at 50% humidity conditions. When the environment humidity was raised from 50% to 70%, the thermal conductivity of CMP-ED and commercial SiO2 aerogels improved by 0.12% and 7%, respectively. Furthermore, XRD, FTIR, BET and TG were conducted to evaluate the bulk structure and stability of CMP-ED and CMP-PT. The results illustrated the thermal conductivity values were greatly affected by the pore structure of foams. And the strong hydrophobicity and the narrow pore structure were responsible for the good thermal insulation performance under humid conditions. Considering the low density, superhydrophobicity, excellent physicochemical stability and impervious thermal conductivity in a high humidity environment, this CMP-ED presented great potential as an insulating material in a humid environment.