Structure-Property Relations of Imine-Linked Covalent Organic Frameworks

Summary

This PhD thesis is about the effect of functionalising covalent organic frameworks (COFs) on the properties of these porous materials. COFs contain nanometre-sized, hexagonal pores that are honeycomb-shaped. Due to these pores, four grams of COF have a surface area that equals the area of an entire football field. Functionalisation means that we made several materials containing different chemical moieties in the pore walls. These moieties can change the properties of the materials, for example their stability and surface area, and enable tailoring COFs to a specific application. We have investigated facile ways to include different moieties in COFs. This enabled us to obtain more stable COF materials and to improve the CO2 uptake compared to their non-functionalised equivalents. Moreover, we found a favourable uptake of CO2 over N2 in a mixture of both gases, a model system for industrial flue gas emissions, making COFs promising materials for CO2 capture.