Assembly-Dissociation-Reconstruction Synthesis of Covalent Organic Framework Membranes with High Continuity for Efficient CO2 Separation.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), at the forefront of porous materials, hold tremendous potential in membrane separation; however, achieving high continuity in COF membranes remains crucial for efficient gas separation. Here, we present a unique approach termed assembly-dissociation-reconstruction for fabricating COF membranes tailored for CO2/N2 separation. A parent COF is designed from two-node aldehyde and three-node amine monomers and dissociated to high-aspect-ratio nanosheets. Subsequently, COF nanosheets are orderly reconstructed into a crack-free membrane by surface reaction under water evaporation. The membrane exhibits high crystallinity, open pores and a strong affinity for CO2 adsorption over N2, resulting in CO2 permeance exceeding 1060 GPU and CO2/N2 selectivity surpassing 30.6. The efficacy of this strategy offers valuable guidance for the precise fabrication of gas-separation membranes.

A Bipyridyl Covalent Organic Framework with Coordinated Cu(I) for Membrane C3 H6 /C3 H8 Separation.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) combining individual attributes of COFs and polymers are promising for gas separation. However, applying COF MMMs for propylene/propane (C3 H6 /C3 H8 ) separation remains a big challenge due to COF inert pores and C3 H6 /C3 H8 similar molecular sizes. Herein, the designed synthesis of a Cu(I) coordinated COF for membrane C3 H6 /C3 H8 separation is reported. A platform COF is synthesized from 5,5'-diamino-2,2'-bipyridine and 2-hydroxybenzene-1,3,5-tricarbaldehyde. This COF possesses a porous 2D structure with high crystallinity. Cu(I) is coordinated to bipyridyl moieties in the COF framework, acting as recognizable sites for C3 H6 gas, as shown by the adsorption measurements. Cu(I) COF is blended with 6FDA-DAM polymer to yield MMMs. This COF MMM exhibits selective and permeable separation of C3 H6 from C3 H8 (C3 H6 permeability of 44.7 barrer, C3 H6 /C3 H8 selectivity of 28.1). The high porosity and Cu(I) species contribute to the great improvement of separation performance by virtue of 2.3-fold increase in permeability and 2.2-fold increase in selectivity compared to pure 6FDA-DAM. The superior performance to those of most relevant reported MMMs demonstrates that the Cu(I) coordinated COF is an excellent candidate material for C3 H6 separation membranes.

Ultramicroporous Covalent Organic Framework Nanosheets with Functionality Pair for Membrane C2 H2 /C2 H4 Separation.

Gas separation efficiency of covalent organic framework (COF) membrane can be greatly elevated through precise functionalization. A pair-functionalized COF membrane of 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol (TP) and isoquinoline-5,8-diamine (IQD) monomers in two and three nodes is designed and synthesized. TP-IQD is crystallized in a two-dimensional structure with a pore size of 6.5 Šand a surface area of 289 m2 g-1 . This COF possesses N-O paired groups which cooperatively interact with C2 H2 instead of C2 H4 . TP-IQD nanosheets of ≈10 µm in width and ≈4 nm in thickness are prepared by mechanical exfoliation; they are further processed with 6FDA-ODA polymer into a hybrid membrane. High porosity and functionality pair of TP-IQD offer the membrane with significantly increased C2 H2 permeability and C2 H2 /C2 H4 selectivity which are 160 % and 430 % higher of pure 6FDA-ODA. The boosted performance demonstrates high efficiency of the pair-functionality strategy for the synthesis of separation-led COFs.

Synthesis and Physicochemical Properties of 2,7-Disubstituted Phenanthro[2,1-b:7,8-b']dithiophenes.

We report the design, synthesis, and physicochemical properties of an array of phenanthro[2,1-b:7,8-b']dithiophene (PDT-2) derivatives by introducing five types of alkyl (CnH2n+1; n = 8, 10, 12, 13, and 14) or two types of decylthienyl groups at 2,7-positions of the PDT-2 core. Systematic investigation revealed that the alkyl length and the type of side chains have a great effect on the physicochemical properties. For alkylated PDT-2, the solubility was gradually decreased as the chain length was increased. For instance, C8-PDT-2 exhibited the highest solubility (5.0 g/L) in chloroform. Additionally, substitution with 5-decylthienyl groups showed poor solubility in both chloroform and toluene, whereas PDT-2 with 4-decylthienyl groups resulted in higher solubility. Furthermore, UV-vis absorption of PDT-2 derivatives substituted by decylthienyl groups showed a redshift, indicating the extension of their π-conjugation length. This work reveals that modification of the conjugated core by alkyl or decylthienyl side chains may be an efficient strategy by which to change the physicochemical properties, which might lead to the development of high-performance organic semiconductors.