Covalent Organic Framework Electrocatalysts for Clean Energy Conversion

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are promising for catalysis, sensing, gas storage, adsorption, optoelectricity, etc. owning to the unprecedented combination of large surface area, high crystallinity, tunable pore size, and unique molecular architecture. Although COFs are in their initial research stage, progress has been made in the design and synthesis of COF-based electrocatalysis for the oxygen reduction reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, and CO₂ reduction in energy conversion and fuel generation. Design principles are also established for some of the COF materials toward rational design and rapid screening of the best electrocatalysts for a specific application. Herein, the recent advances in the design and synthesis of COF-based catalysts for clean energy conversion and storage are presented. Future research directions and perspectives are also being discussed for the development of efficient COF-based electrocatalysts.

Design Principles for Covalent Organic Frameworks as Efficient Electrocatalysts in Clean Energy Conversion and Green Oxidizer Production

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), an emerging class of framework materials linked by covalent bonds, hold potential for various applications such as efficient electrocatalysts, photovoltaics, and sensors. To rationally design COF-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, activity descriptors, derived from orbital energy and bonding structures, are identified with the first-principle calculations for the COFs, which correlate COF structures with their catalytic activities. The calculations also predict that alkaline-earth metal-porphyrin COFs could catalyze the direct production of H₂ O₂ , a green oxidizer and an energy carrier. These predictions are supported by experimental data, and the design principles derived from the descriptors provide an approach for rational design of new electrocatalysts for both clean energy conversion and green oxidizer production.

A molecular material based on electropolymerized cobalt macrocycles for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Electropolymerization of CoTAA gives an electrocatalytic material for the H₂ evolution reaction in acidic aqueous solution.

Systematic selection of metalloporphyrin-based catalysts for oxygen reduction by modulation of the donor-acceptor intermolecular hardness

Incisive modulation of the intermolecular hardness between metalloporphyrins and O2 can lead to the identification of promising catalysts for oxygen reduction. The dependency of the electrocatalytic reduction of O2 by metalloporphyrins on the nature of the central metal yields a volcano-type curve, which is rationalized to be in accordance with the Sabatier principle by using an approximation of the electrophilicity of the complexes. By using electrochemical and UV/Vis data, the influence of a selection of meso-substituents on the change in the energy for the π→π* excitation of manganese porphyrins was evaluated allowing one to quantitatively correlate the influence of the various ligands on the electrocatalysis of O2 reduction by the complexes. A manganese porphyrin was identified that electrocatalyzes the reduction of oxygen at low overpotentials without generating hydrogen peroxide. The activity of the complex became remarkably enhanced upon its pyrolysis at 650 °C.