E-mail: pradip. Covalent organic frameworks are a class of extended crystalline organic materials that possess unique architectures with high surface areas and tuneable pore sizes. Since the first discovery of the topological frameworks in , COFs have been applied as promising materials in diverse areas such as separation and purification, sensing or catalysis. Considering the need for renewable and clean energy production, many research efforts have recently focused on the application of porous materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion.
In this respect, considerable efforts have been devoted to the design and synthesis of COF-based materials for electrochemical applications, including electrodes and membranes for fuel cells, supercapacitors and batteries. This review article highlights the design principles and strategies for the synthesis of COFs with a special focus on their potential for electrochemical applications. Recently suggested hybrid COF materials or COFs with hierarchical porosity will be discussed, which can alleviate the most challenging drawback of COFs for these applications.
Finally, the major challenges and future trends of COF materials in electrochemical applications are outlined. Xiaojia Zhao. Dr Xiaojia Zhao received a bachelor's degree in polymer science from Hebei University of Science and Technology in His research is focused on the design and synthesis of porous materials and their potential applications in photo electrocatalysis.
Pradip Pachfule. Rahul Banerjee in This was followed by a further two years in the group of Prof. Currently, he is working in the same laboratory of Prof. Thomas as a postdoctoral research fellow. Arne Thomas. Recently a range of novel porous materials has been developed, whose structures can be precisely manipulated and which are therefore interesting for several electrochemical processes, 9,11—17 particularly, metal organic frameworks MOFs 18—24 and covalent organic frameworks COFs.
Chemical stability especially in reactions performed in strongly acidic or basic electrolyte solutions as well as low electrical conductivity are however issues that have to be considered when applying MOFs in electrochemical applications.
