Photo-tailored heterocrystalline covalent organic framework membranes for organics separation

Photo-Induced Geometry and Polarity Gradients in Covalent Organic Frameworks Enabling Fast and Durable Molecular Separations

Azobenzene, which activates its geometric and chemical structure under light stimulation enables noninvasive control of mass transport in many processes including membrane separations. However, producing azobenzene-decorated channels that have precise size tunability and favorable pore wall chemistry allowing fast and durable permeation to solvent molecules, remains a great challenge. Herein, an advanced membrane that comprises geometry and polarity gradients within covalent organic framework (COF) nanochannels utilizing photoisomerization of azobenzene groups is reported. Such functional variations afford reduced interfacial transfer resistance and enhanced solvent-philic pore channels, thus creating a fast solvent transport pathway without compromising selectivity. Moreover, the membrane sets up a densely covered defense layer to prevent foulant adhesion and the accumulation of cake layer, contributing to enhanced antifouling resistance to organic foulants, and a high recovery rate of solvent permeance. More importantly, the solvent permeance displays a negligible decline throughout the long-term filtration for over 40 days. This work reports the geometry and polarity gradients in COF channels induced by the conformation change of branched azobenzene groups and demonstrates the strong capability of this conformation change in realizing fast and durable molecular separations.

Rational design of a hydrophilic nanoarray-structured electro-Fenton membrane for antibiotics removal and fouling mitigation: An intensified catalysis process in an oxygen vacancy-mediated cathodic microreactor

Electro-Fenton membranes (EFMs) can synchronously realize organic micropollutants destruction and fouling mitigation in a single filtration process with the assistance of hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Herein, a nanoarray-structured EFM (NS-EFM) was designed by assembling Fenton reactive CoFe-LDH nanowires using a low-temperature hydrothermal method. Combined with a defect-engineering strategy, the oxygen vacancies (OVac) in the CoFe-LDH nanoarrays were tailored by manipulating the stoichiometry of cations to optimize the Fenton reactivity of NS-EFMs. The optimized NS-EFM demonstrated exceptional sulfamethoxazole (SMX) removal (99.4%) and fast degradation kinetics (0.0846 min-1), but lower energy consumption (0.22 kWh m-3 per log removal of SMX). In-depth mechanism analysis revealed that the intrinsic electronic properties of OVac endowed NS-EFM with enhanced reactivity and charge transferability at metallic active sites of CoFe-LDH, thereby intensifying •OH generation. Besides, the nanoarray-structured NS-EFM built a confined microreactor space, leading to expedited •OH microflow to SMX. Meanwhile, the hydrophilic nature of CoFe-LDH nanoarrays synergistically contributed to the high flux recovery (95.0%) and minimal irreversible membrane fouling (5.0%), effectively alleviating membrane fouling within pores and on surfaces. This study offers insights into the potential of defect engineering as a foundational strategy in the design of EFMs, significantly advancing the treatment of organic pollutants and control of membrane fouling.

Aminal-Linked Covalent Organic Framework Membranes Achieve Superior Ion Selectivity

High-salinity wastewater treatment is perceived as a global water resource recycling challenge that must be addressed to achieve zero discharge. Monovalent/divalent salt separation using membrane technology provides a promising strategy for sulfate removal from chlor-alkali brine. However, existing desalination membranes often show low water permeance and insufficient ion selectivity. Herein, an aminal-linked covalent organic framework (COF) membrane featuring a regular long-range pore size of 7 Å and achieving superior ion selectivity is reported, in which a uniform COF layer with subnanosized channels is assembled by the chemical splicing of 1,4-phthalaldehyde (TPA)-piperazine (PZ) COF through an amidation reaction with trimesoyl chloride (TMC). The chemically spliced TPA-PZ (sTPA-PZ) membrane maintains an inherent pore structure and exhibits a water permeance of 13.1 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, a Na2SO4 rejection of 99.1%, and a Cl-/SO4 2- separation factor of 66 for mixed-salt separation, which outperforms all state-of-the-art COF-based membranes reported. Furthermore, the single-stage treatment of NaCl/Na2SO4 mixed-salt separation achieves a high NaCl purity of above 95% and a recovery rate of ≈60%, offering great potential for industrial application in monovalent/divalent salt separation and wastewater resource utilization. Therefore, the aminal-linked COF membrane developed in this work provides a new research avenue for designing smart/advanced membrane materials for angstrom-scale separations.

3D Covalent Organic Frameworks from Design, Synthesis to Applications in Optoelectronics

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a new class of crystalline materials connected by covalent bonds, have been developed rapidly in the past decades. However, the research on COFs is mainly focused on two-dimensional (2D) COFs, and the research on three-dimensional (3D) COFs is still in the initial stage. In 2D COFs, the covalent bonds exist only in the 2D flakes and can form 1D channels, which hinder the charge transport to some extent. In contrast, 3D COFs have a more complex pore structure and thus exhibit higher specific surface area and richer active sites, which greatly enhance the 3D charge carrier transport. Therefore, compared to 2D COFs, 3D COFs have stronger applicability in energy storage and conversion, sensing, and optoelectronics. In this review, it is first introduced the design principles for 3D COFs, and in particular summarize the development of conjugated building blocks in 3D COFs, with a special focus on their application in optoelectronics. Subsequently, the preparation of 3D COF powders and thin films and methods to improve the stability and functionalization of 3D COFs are summarized. Moreover, the applications of 3D COFs in electronics are outlined. Finally, conclusions and future research directions for 3D COFs are presented.

2D Conjugated Polymer Thin Films for Organic Electronics: Opportunities and Challenges

2D conjugated polymers (2DCPs) possess extended in-plane π-conjugated lattice and out-of-plane π-π stacking, which results in enhanced electronic performance and potentially unique band structures. These properties, along with predesignability, well-defined channels, easy postmodification, and order structure attract extensive attention from material science to organic electronics. In this review, the recent advance in the interfacial synthesis and conductivity tuning strategies of 2DCP thin films, as well as their application in organic electronics is summarized. Furthermore, it is shown that, by combining topology structure design and targeted conductivity adjustment, researchers have fabricated 2DCP thin films with predesigned active groups, highly ordered structures, and enhanced conductivity. These films exhibit great potential for various thin-film organic electronics, such as organic transistors, memristors, electrochromism, chemiresistors, and photodetectors. Finally, the future research directions and perspectives of 2DCPs are discussed in terms of the interfacial synthetic design and structure engineering for the fabrication of fully conjugated 2DCP thin films, as well as the functional manipulation of conductivity to advance their applications in future organic electronics.

Strategies for utilizing covalent organic frameworks as host materials for the integration and delivery of bioactives

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a new and developing class of porous framework materials, are considered a type of promising carrier for the integration and delivery of bioactives, which have diverse fascinating merits, such as a large specific surface area, designable and specific porosity, stable and orderly framework structure, and various active sites. However, owing to the significant differences among bioactives (including drugs, proteins, nucleic acid, and exosomes), such as size, structure, and physicochemical properties, the interaction between COFs and bioactives also varies. In this review, we firstly summarize three strategies for the construction of single or hybrid COF-based matrices for the delivery of cargos, including encapsulation, covalent binding, and coordination bonding. Besides, their smart response release behaviors are also categorized. Subsequently, the applications of cargo@COF biocomposites in biomedicine are comprehensively summarized, including tumor therapy, central nervous system (CNS) modulation, biomarker analysis, bioimaging, and anti-bacterial therapy. Finally, the challenges and opportunities in this field are briefly discussed.

Tunable Molecular Sieving by Hierarchically Assembled Porous Organic Cage Membranes with Solvent-Responsive Switchable Pores

Molecular separations involving solvents and organic impurities represent great challenges for environmental and water-intensive industries. Novel materials with intrinsic nanoscale pores offer a great choice for improvement in terms of energy efficiency and capital costs. Particularly, in applications where gradient and ordered separation of organic contaminants remain elusive, smart materials with switchable pores can offer efficient solutions. Here, we report a hierarchically networked porous organic cage membrane with dynamic control over pores, elucidating stable solvent permeance and tunable dye rejection over different molecular weights. The engineered cage membrane can spontaneously modulate its geometry and pore size from water to methanol and DMF in a reversible manner. The cage membrane exhibits ≥585.59 g mol-1 molecular weight cutoff preferentially in water and is impeded by methanol (799.8 g mol-1) and DMF (≈1017 g mol-1), reflecting 36 and 73% change in rejection due to self-regulation and the flexible network, respectively. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction illustrates a clear peak downshift, suggesting an intrinsic structural change when the cage membranes were immersed in methanol or DMF. We have observed reversible structural changes that can also be tuned by preparing a methanol/DMF mixture and adjusting their ratio, thereby enabling gradient molecular filtration. We anticipate that such cage membranes with dynamic selectivity could be promising particularly for industrial separations and wastewater treatment.

Research Progress in Donor-Acceptor Type Covalent Organic Frameworks

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are new organic porous materials constructed by covalent bonds, with the advantages of pre-designable topology, adjustable pore size, and abundant active sites. Many research studies have shown that COFs exhibit great potential in gas adsorption, molecular separation, catalysis, drug delivery, energy storage, etc. However, the electrons and holes of intrinsic COF are prone to compounding in transport, and the carrier lifetime is short. The donor-acceptor (D-A) type COFs, which are synthesized by introducing D and A units into the COFs backbone, combine separated electron and hole migration pathway, tunable band gap and optoelectronic properties of D-A type polymers with the unique advantages of COFs and have made great progress in related research in recent years. Here, the synthetic strategies of D-A type COFs are first outlined, including the rational design of linkages and D-A units as well as functionalization approaches. Then the applications of D-A type COFs in catalytic reactions, photothermal therapy, and electronic materials are systematically summarized. In the final section, the current challenges, and new directions for the development of D-A type COFs are presented.

Continuous Covalent Organic Frameworks Membranes: From Preparation Strategies to Applications

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are porous crystalline polymeric materials formed by the covalent bonding of organic units. The abundant organic units library gives the COFs species diversity, easily tuned pore channels, and pore sizes. In addition, the periodic arrangement of organic units endows COFs regular and highly connected pore channels, which has led to the rapid development of COFs in membrane separations. Continuous defect-free and high crystallinity of COF membranes is the key to their application in separations, which is the most important issue to be addressed in the research. This review article describes the linkage types of covalent bonds, synthesis methods, and pore size regulation strategies of COFs materials. Further, the preparation strategies of continuous COFs membranes are highlighted, including layer-by-layer (LBL) stacking, in situ growth, interfacial polymerization (IP), and solvent casting. The applications in separation fields of continuous COFs membranes are also discussed, including gas separation, water treatment, organic solvent nanofiltration, ion conduction, and energy battery membranes. Finally, the research results are summarized and the future prospect for the development of COFs membranes are outlined. More attention may be paid to the large-scale preparation of COFs membranes and the development of conductive COFs membranes in future research.

Tailor-made β-ketoenamine-linked covalent organic polymer nanofilms for precise molecular sieving

The membranes that accurately separate solutes with close molecular weights in harsh solvents are of crucial importance for the development of highly-precise organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). The physicochemical structures of the membrane need to be rationally designed to achieve this goal, such as customized crosslinked networks, thickness, and pore size. Herein, we synthesize a type of covalent organic polymer (COP) nanofilms with tailor-made thickness and pore structure using a cyclic deposition strategy for precise molecular sieving. By elaborately designing monomer structures and controlling deposition cycle numbers, the COP nanofilms linked by robust β-ketoenamine blocks were endowed with sub-nanometer micropores and a linearly tunable thickness of 10-40 nm. The composite membranes integrating COP nanofilms exhibited adjustable solvent permeance. The membranes further demonstrated steep and finely-regulated rejection curves within the molecular weight range of 200 to 400 Da, where the difference value was as low as 40 Da. The efficient purification and concentration of the antibacterial drug and its intermediate was well achieved. Therefore, the exploited COP nanofilms markedly facilitate the application of microporous organic polymers for precise molecular separation in OSN.

Water/Vapor Assisted Fabrication of Large-Area Superprotonic Conductive Covalent Organic Framework Membranes

Fabrication of large-area ionic covalent organic framework membranes (iCOMs) remains a grand challenge. Herein, the authors report the liquid water and water vapor-assisted fabrication of large-area superprotonic conductive iCOMs. A mixed monomer solution containing 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol (TFP) in 1,4-dioxane and p-diaminobenzenesulfonic acid (DABA) in water is first polymerized to obtain a pristine membrane which subsequently underwent crystallization process in mixed vapors containing water vapor. During the polymerization stage, water played a role of a diluting agent, weakening the Coulombic repulsion between sulfonic acid groups. During the crystallization stage, water vapor played a role of a structure-directing agent to facilitate the formation of highly crystalline, large-area iCOMs. The resulting membranes achieved a proton conductivity value of 0.76 S cm-1 at 90 °C under 100% relative humidity, which is among the highest ever reported. Using liquid water and water vapor as versatile additives open a novel avenue to the fabrication of large-area membranes from covalent organic frameworks and other kinds of crystalline organic framework materials.

Recent progress of covalent organic frameworks membranes: Design, synthesis, and application in water treatment

To date, significant efforts have been devoted to eliminating hazardous components to purify wastewater through the development of various nanomaterials. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), an important branch of the porous crystalline family, possess the peculiarity of ultrahigh surface area, adjustable pore size, and facile functionality. Exciting studies from design fabrication to potential applications in water treatment by COF-based membranes (COMs) have emerged. This review summarizes various preparation strategies and synthesis mechanisms for COMs, including layer-by-layer stacking, in situ growth, interfacial polymerization, and electrochemical synthesis, and briefly describes the advanced characterization techniques for COMs. Moreover, the application of COMs in heavy metal removal, dye separation, purification of radionuclides, pollutant detection, sea water desalination, and so on, is described and discussed. Finally, the perspectives on future opportunities for designing COMs in water purification have been proposed.

Nitrogen-Rich Porous Organic Polymers from an Irreversible Amine-Epoxy Reaction for Pd Nanocatalyst Carrier

Nitrogen-rich porous organic polymers were fabricated through a nonreversible ring-opening reaction from polyamines and polyepoxides (PAEs). The epoxide groups reacted with both primary and secondary amines provided by the polyamines at different epoxide/amine ratios with polyethylene glycol as the solvent to form the porous materials. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the occurrence of ring opening between the polyamines and polyepoxides. The porous structure of the materials was confirmed through N₂ adsorption-desorption data and scanning electron microscopy images. The polymers were found to possess both crystalline and noncrystalline structures, as evidenced by X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) results. The HR-TEM images revealed a thin, sheet-like layered structure with ordered orientations, and the lattice fringe spacing measured from these images was consistent with the interlayer of the PAEs. Additionally, the selected area electron diffraction pattern indicated that the PAEs contained a hexagonal crystal structure. The Pd catalyst was fabricated in situ onto the PAEs support by the NaBH₄ reduction of the Au precursor, and the size of the nano-Pd was about 6.9 nm. The high nitrogen content of the polymer backbone combined with Pd noble nanometals resulted in excellent catalytic performance in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol.

Precise identification and ultrafast transport of specific molecules with nanofluid-functionalized imprinted membrane

Membrane-based imprinted sites for achieving specific molecule transport and precise recognition have great potential to revolutionize nanofiltration technology. Nonetheless, how to efficiently prepare imprinted membrane structures with accurate identification - ultrafast molecular transport - high stability in mobile phase remains a key issue and serious challenge. Herein, we have developed a dual-activation strategy to constructing nanofluid-functionalized membranes with double imprinted nanoscale channels (NMDINCs), realizing ultrafast transport performance as well as structure&size-exclusion selectivity in allusion to particular compounds. The resultant NMDINCs, founded on principal nanofluid-functionalized construction companied by the boronate affinity sol-gel imprinting systems, illustrated that delicate regulation towards polymerization framework as well as functionalization belonging to distinctive membrane structures was crucial for realizing ultrafast molecules transport combined with prominent molecules selectivity. The synergistic recognition of covalent bonds and non-covalent bonds driven by two functional monomers effectively realized the selective recognition to template molecules, leading to the high selective separation factors of Shikimic acid (SA)/ Para hydroxybenzoic acid（PHA）, SA/ P nitrophenol（PN）and catechol（CL）for 8.9, 8.14 and 7.23, respectively. The dynamic consecutive transport outcomes exhibited that numerous SA-dependent recognition sites could still keep reactivity under pump-driven permeation pressure for appreciable time, forcefully proving the successful construction as to high-efficiency membrane-based selective separation system. It is anticipated that this strategy as to the in situ introduction of nanofluid-functionalized construction into porous membrane would hold great promise in preparing high-intensities membrane-founded discriminating separation systems, which was equipped with prominent consecutive permeability as well as excellent selectivity.

Towards a scalable and controllable preparation of highly-uniform surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates: Defect-free nanofilms as templates

The uniformity and reproducibility of substrates highly determine the applicability of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Production of them, however, remains a challenge. Herein, we report a template-based strategy for the strictly controllable and handily scalable preparation of a very uniform SERS substrate, Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs)/nanofilm, where the template used is a flexible, transparent, self-standing, defect-free and robust nanofilm. Importantly, the obtained AgNPs/nanofilm is self-adhesive to surfaces of different properties and morphologies, ensuring in-situ and at real-time SERS detection. The enhancement factor (EF) of the substrate for rhodamine 6G (R6G) could reach 5.8 × 10¹⁰ with a detection limit (DL) of 1.0 × 10^-15 mol L^-1. Moreover, 500 bending tests and one-month storage showed no observable performance degradation, and up to 50.0 cm² scaled-up preparation depicted negligible effect upon the structure and the sensing performance. The real-life applicability of AgNPs/nanofilm was demonstrated by the sensitive detection of tetramethylthiuram disulfide on cherry tomato and fentanyl in methanol with a routine handheld Raman spectrometer. This work thus provides a reliable strategy for large area wet-chemical preparation of high-quality SERS substrates.

Recovery of homogeneous photocatalysts by covalent organic framework membranes

Transition metal-based homogeneous photocatalysts offer a wealth of opportunities for organic synthesis. The most versatile ruthenium(II) and iridium(III) polypyridyl complexes, however, are among the rarest metal complexes. Moreover, immobilizing these precious catalysts for recycling is challenging as their opacity may obstruct light transmission. Recovery of homogeneous catalysts by conventional polymeric membranes is promising but limited, as the modulation of their pore structure and tolerance of polar organic solvents are challenging. Here, we report the effective recovery of homogeneous photocatalysts using covalent organic framework (COF) membranes. An array of COF membranes with tunable pore sizes and superior organic solvent resistance were prepared. Ruthenium and iridium photoredox catalysts were recycled for 10 cycles in various types of photochemical reactions, constantly achieving high catalytical performance, high recovery rates, and high permeance. We successfully recovered the photocatalysts at gram-scale. Furthermore, we demonstrated a cascade isolation of an iridium photocatalyst and purification of a small organic molecule product with COF membranes possessing different pore sizes. Our results indicate an intriguing potential to shift the paradigm of the pharmaceutical and fine chemical synthesis campaign.

Perpendicular Alignment of Covalent Organic Framework (COF) Pore Channels by Solvent Vapor Annealing

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have showcased great potential in diverse applications such as separation and catalysis, where mass transfer confined in their pore channels plays a significant role. However, anisotropic orientation usually occurs in polycrystalline COFs, and perpendicular alignment of COF pore channels is ultimately desired to maximize their performance. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy, solvent vapor annealing, to reorient COF pore channels from anisotropic orientation to perpendicular alignment. COF thin films are first synthesized to have flexible N-H bonds in their skeletons, thus having structural mobility to enable molecular rearrangement. A solvent with low relative permittivity and a conjugated structure is then identified to have a strong affinity toward the COFs, allowing its vapor to easily penetrate into the COF interlayers. The solvent vapor weakens the π-π interaction and consequently allows the COF monolayers to dissociate. The COF monolayers undergo a reorientation process that converts from random stacking into the face-on stacking fashion, in which the through COF pores are perpendicularly aligned. The aligned COF film exhibits high separation precision toward ions featuring a size difference down to 2 Å, which is 8 times higher than that of the anisotropically oriented counterpart. This work opens up an avenue for COF orientation regulation by solvent vapor annealing and reveals the essential role of the perpendicular alignment of COF pore channels to enable precision separations.

Electrically Modulated Nanofiltration Membrane Based on an Arch-Bridged Graphene Structure for Multicomponent Molecular Separation

Tunable regulation of molecular penetration through porous membranes is highly desirable for membrane applications in the pharmaceutical and medical fields. However, in most previous reports additional reagents or components are usually needed to provide the graphene-based membranes with responsiveness. Herein, we report tunable arch-bridged reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanofiltration membranes modulated by the applied voltage. Under a finite voltage of 5 V, the rGO membrane could completely reject organic/anionic molecules. With assistance of the voltage, the positive-charge-modified rGO membrane realized the universal rejection of both cationic and anionic dyes, also showing the valid modulation in harsh organic solvents. The efficient electrical modulation depended on the synergetic effects of Donnan repulsion and size exclusion, benefiting from the electric field enhancement in arch-bridged rGO structures. Furthermore, multicomponent separation was achieved by our electrically modulated rGO-based membranes, demonstrating their potential in practical applications such as pharmaceutical industries.

Charged Boron Nitride Nanosheet Membranes for Improved Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

Two-dimensional nanomaterial-based membranes have earned broad attention because of their excellent capability of separation performance in a mixture that can challenge the conventional membrane materials utilized in the organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) field. Boron nitride (BN) nanosheet membranes have displayed superb stability and separation ability in aqueous and organic solutions compared to the widely researched analogous graphene-based membranes; nevertheless, the concentration polarization of organic dye pollutants fades their separation performance and eclipses their potential adoption as a feasible technology. Herein, PDDA-modified BN (PBN) and sodium alginate-modified BN (SBN) nanosheet membranes with a thinner laminar structure are facially fabricated to improve the molecule separation performance compared to that of the pristine BN membrane. In aqueous separation application, the SBN membranes (2 μm) can reject positively charged dyes up to 100% and the PBN membrane (2 μm) could reject negatively charged dyes up to 100%. Impressively, the PBN membranes (3 μm) and SBN membranes (3 μm) demonstrate record high performances in OSN, with a permeance of 809 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1 and 97.71% rejection to acid fuchsin in acetonitrile and 290 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1 and 94.94% rejection to Azure B in dimethyl sulfoxide, respectively. The charged PBN and SBN nanosheet membranes demonstrate stable separation capability, exhibiting their potential for practical water and organic solvent purification processes.

Oxidation-Reduction Molecular Junction Covalent Organic Frameworks for Full Reaction Photosynthesis of H2 O2

The full reaction photosynthesis of H₂ O₂ that can combine water-oxidation and oxygen-reduction without sacrificial agents is highly demanded to maximize the light-utilization and overcome the complex reaction-process of anthraquinone-oxidation. Here, a kind of oxidation-reduction molecular junction covalent-organic-framework (TTF-BT-COF) has been synthesized through the covalent-coupling of tetrathiafulvalene (photo-oxidation site) and benzothiazole (photo-reduction site), which presents visible-light-adsorption region, effective electron-hole separation-efficiency and photo-redox sites that enables full reaction generation of H₂ O₂ . Specifically, a record-high yield (TTF-BT-COF, ≈276 000 μM h^-1  g^-1 ) for H₂ O₂ photosynthesis without sacrificial agents has been achieved among porous crystalline photocatalysts. This is the first work that can design oxidation-reduction molecular junction COFs for full reaction photosynthesis of H₂ O₂ , which might extend the scope of COFs in H₂ O₂ production.

Large-area Free-standing Metalloporphyrin-based Covalent Organic Framework Films by Liquid-air Interfacial Polymerization for Oxygen Electrocatalysis

Synthesizing large-area free-standing covalent organic framework (COF) films is of vital importance for their applications but is still a big challenge. Herein, we reported the synthesis of large metalloporphyrin-based COF films and their applications for oxygen electrocatalysis. The reaction of meso-benzohydrazide-substituted metal porphyrins with tris-aldehyde linkers afforded free-standing COF films at the liquid-air interface. These films can be scaled up to 3000 cm² area and display great mechanical stability and structural integrity. Importantly, the Co-porphyrin-based films are efficient for electrocatalytic O₂ reduction and evolution reactions. A flexible, all-solid-state Zn-air battery was assembled using the films and showed high performance with a charge-discharge voltage gap of 0.88 V at 1 mA cm^-2 and high stability under bent conditions (0° to 180°). This work thus presents a strategy to synthesize functionalized COF films with high quality for uses in flexible electronics.