Porous conjugated polymers have emerged recently as efficient metal-free and visible light-active photocatalysts. However, the synthesis of this new class of materials usually requires transition ...metal catalysts such as palladium. A metal-free synthetic route still remains a huge challenge for the chemists. Here we report on a metal-free pathway of a porous conjugated polymer via simple Knoevenagel polycondensation under mild reaction conditions. The obtained polymer exhibited a high surface area and could be applied as a robust and efficient heterogeneous photocatalyst for the oxidative hydroxylation of arylboronic acids under visible light irradiation with a high functional group tolerance of the substrates.
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•metal-free preparation of porous conjugated polymers.•photocatalytic oxidative hydroxylation of arylboronic acids.•visible light photocatalysis.•high functional group tolerance of the substrates.
Exciton binding energy has been regarded as a crucial parameter for mediating charge separation in polymeric photocatalysts. Minimizing the exciton binding energy of the polymers can increase the ...yield of charge‐carrier generation and thus improve the photocatalytic activities, but the realization of this approach remains a great challenge. Herein, a series of linear donor–acceptor conjugated polymers has been developed to minimize the exciton binding energy by modulating the charge‐transfer pathway. The results reveal that the reduced energy loss of the charge‐transfer state can facilitate the electron transfer from donor to acceptor, and thus, more electrons are ready for subsequent reduction reactions. The optimized polymer, FSO‐FS, exhibits a remarkable photochemical performance under visible light irradiation.
Modulating the charge‐transfer pathway in a series of linear donor–acceptor conjugated polymers controls their ability to minimize the exciton binding energy. A low exciton binding energy promotes the photoreaction for artificial photosynthesis
Large-scale photochemical synthesis of high value chemicals under mild conditions is an ideal method of green chemical production. However, a scalable photocatalytic process has been barely reported ...due to the costly preparation, low stability of photosensitizers and critical reaction conditions required for classical photocatalysts. Here, we report the merging of flow chemistry with heterogeneous photoredox catalysis for the facile production of high value compounds in a continuous flow reactor with visible light at room temperature in air. In the flow reactor system, polymeric carbon nitrides, which are cheap, sustainable and stable heterogeneous photocatalysts, are immobilized onto glass beads and fibers, demonstrating a highly flexible construction possibility for devices of the photocatalytic materials. As an example of the production of high value chemicals, important chemical structures such as cyclobutanes, which are basic building blocks for many pharmaceutical compounds, like magnosalin, are synthesized in flow with high catalytic efficiency and stability.
Electron transfer is the rate‐limiting step in photocatalytic water splitting. Viologen and its derivatives are able to act as electron‐transfer mediators (ETMs) to facilitate the rapid electron ...transfer from photosensitizers to active sites. Nevertheless, the electron‐transfer ability often suffers from the formation of a stable dipole structure through the coupling between cationic‐radical‐containing viologen‐derived ETMs, by which the electron‐transfer process becomes restricted. Herein, cyclic diquats, a kind of viologen‐derived ETM, are integrated into a 2,2′‐bipyridine‐based covalent organic framework (COF) through a post‐quaternization reaction. The content and distribution of embedded diquat‐ETMs are elaborately controlled, leading to the favorable site‐isolated arrangement. The resulting materials integrate the photosensitizing units and ETMs into one system, exhibiting the enhanced hydrogen evolution rate (34600 μmol h−1 g−1) and sustained performances when compared to a single‐module COF and a COF/ETM mixture. The integration strategy applied in a 2D COF platform promotes the consecutive electron transfer in photochemical processes through the multi‐component cooperation.
Viologen‐derived electron‐transfer mediators (ETMs) are integrated into a 2,2′‐bipyridine‐containing covalent organic framework (COF) by a controllable post‐synthetic method. The site‐isolated ETM modules cooperate well with photosensitizer modules on the platform of COFs for enhanced electron‐transfer ability, thereby remarkably promoting the photocatalytic H2 evolution performance (34600 μmol h−1 g−1) from water splitting.
The search for metal‐free organic photocatalysts for H2 production from water using visible light remains a key challenge. Reported herein is a molecular structural design of pure organic ...photocatalysts, derived from conjugated polybenzothiadiazoles, for photocatalytic H2 evolution using visible light. By alternating the substitution position of the electron‐withdrawing benzothiadizole unit on the phenyl unit as a comonomer, various polymers with either one‐ or three‐dimensional structures were synthesized and the effect of the molecular structure on their catalytic activity was investigated. Photocatalytic H2 evolution efficiencies up to 116 μmol h−1 were observed by employing the linear polymer based on a phenyl‐benzothiadiazole alternating main chain, with an apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 4.01 % at 420 nm using triethanolamine as the sacrificial agent.
Bring to light: Conjugated polybenzothiadiazoles were introduced as a new family of organic photocatalysts for H2 evolution from water in the presence of electron donors with visible‐light irradiation. The molecular engineering of the electron‐withdrawing benzothiadiazole unit on the phenyl unit allows the construction of either one‐ or three‐dimensional polybenzothiadiazoles, and the effect of the structure on the photocatalytic H2 evolution activity was investigated.
The construction of multi‐heteroatom‐doped metal‐free carbon with a reversibly oxygen‐involving electrocatalytic performance is highly desirable for rechargeable metal‐air batteries. However, the ...conventional approach for doping heteroatoms into the carbon matrix remains a huge challenge owing to multistep postdoping procedures. Here, a self‐templated carbonization strategy to prepare a nitrogen, phosphorus, and fluorine tri‐doped carbon nanosphere (NPF‐CNS) is developed, during which a heteroatom‐enriched covalent triazine polymer serves as a “self‐doping” precursor with C, N, P, and F elements simultaneously, avoiding the tedious and inefficient postdoping procedures. Introducing F enhances the electronic structure and surface wettability of the as‐obtained catalyst, beneficial to improve the electrocatalytic performance. The optimized NPF‐CNS catalyst exhibits a superb electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, long‐term durability in pH‐universal conditions as well as outstanding oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance in an alkaline electrolyte. These superior ORR/OER bifunctional electrocatalytic activities are attributed to the predesigned heteroatom catalytic active sites and high specific surface areas of NPF‐CNS. As a demonstration, a zinc‐air battery using the NPF‐CNS cathode displays a high peak power density of 144 mW cm−2 and great stability during 385 discharging/charging cycles, surpassing that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst.
A nitrogen, phosphorus, and fluorine tri‐doped carbon nanosphere (NPF‐CNS) is fabricated from a heteroatom‐enriched covalent triazine polymer by a one‐pot self‐doping strategy. Due to its abundant and uniformly distributed heteroatom electrocatalytic active centers, the as‐developed NPF‐CNS can readily work as an oxygen reduction reaction/oxygen evolution reaction dual‐functional electrocatalyst for a high‐performance rechargeable zinc‐air battery.
Covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) have attracted a great deal of attention as an attractive new class of visible light-active, metal-free, and polymer-based heterogeneous photocatalysts. CTFs have ...demonstrated promising characteristics such as synthetic diversity, stability, nontoxicity, pure organic nature, and enhanced ordered structure. In this review, we aim to summarize the recent developments in CTFs ranging from novel preparation methods to critical factors that directly impact their photocatalytic efficiency. Various physical and chemical design strategies for morphology, band structure, charge separation, and transfer optimization described in the literature are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the enhancement and maximization of photocatalytic efficiencies of specific applications such as photoredox organosynthesis, water splitting, CO2 photoreduction, H2O2 generation, etc.
The construction of multiple heteroatom-doped porous carbon with unique nanoarchitectures and abundant heteroatom active sites is promising for reversible oxygen-involving electrocatalysis. However, ...most of the synthetic methods required the use of templates to construct precisely designed nanostructured carbon. Herein, we introduced an ultrasound-triggered route for the synthesis of a piperazine-containing covalent triazine framework (P-CTF). The ultrasonic energy triggered both the polycondensation of monomers and the assembly into a nanoflower-shaped morphology without utilizing any templates. Subsequent carbonization of P-CTF led to the formation of nitrogen, phosphorus, and fluorine tri-doped porous carbon (NPF@CNFs) with a well-maintained nanoflower morphology. The resultant NPF@CNFs showed high electrocatalytic activity and stability toward bifunctional electrolysis, which was better than the commercial Pt/C and IrO2 electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), respectively. As a further demonstration, employing NPF@CNFs as air electrode materials resulted in an excellent performance of liquid-state and solid-state Zn-air batteries, showing great potentials of the obtained multiple heteroatom-doped porous carbon electrocatalysts for wearable electronics.
A simple structural design principle and band position alignment of conjugated microporous polymers for enhanced photocatalytic efficiency is presented. The valence and conduction band positions of ...the polymer networks can be fine‐tuned by altering the substitution positions on the centered phenyl unit to match the required redox potential of the catalytic reactions under visible light.
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