Solar hydrogen (H 2 ) evolution from water utilizing covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as heterogeneous photosensitizers has gathered significant momentum by virtue of the COFs’ predictive structural design, long-range ordering, tunable porosity, and excellent light-harvesting ability. However, most photocatalytic systems involve rare and expensive platinum as the co-catalyst for water reduction, which appears to be the bottleneck in the development of economical and environmentally benign solar H 2 production systems. Herein, we report a simple, efficient, and low-cost all-in-one photocatalytic H 2 evolution system composed of a thiazolo[5,4- d ]thiazole-linked COF ( TpDTz ) as the photoabsorber and an earth-abundant, noble-metal-free nickel-thiolate hexameric cluster co-catalyst assembled in situ in water, together with triethanolamine (TEoA) as the sacrificial electron donor. The high crystallinity, porosity, photochemical stability, and light absorption ability of the TpDTz COF enables excellent long-term H 2 production over 70 h with a maximum rate of 941 μmol h –1 g –1 , turnover number TON Ni > 103, and total projected TON Ni > 443 until complete catalyst depletion. The high H 2 evolution rate and TON, coupled with long-term photocatalytic operation of this hybrid system in water, surpass those of many previously known organic dyes, carbon nitride, and COF-sensitized photocatalytic H 2 O reduction systems. Furthermore, we gather unique insights into the reaction mechanism, enabled by a specifically designed continuous-flow system for non-invasive, direct H 2 production rate monitoring, providing higher accuracy in quantification compared to the existing batch measurement methods. Overall, the results presented here open the door toward the rational design of robust and efficient earth-abundant COF–molecular co-catalyst hybrid systems for sustainable solar H 2 production in water.

Covalent organic frameworks have emerged as a powerful synthetic platform for installing and interconverting dedicated molecular functions on a crystalline polymeric backbone with atomic precision. Here, we present a novel strategy to directly access amine-linked covalent organic frameworks, which serve as a scaffold enabling pore-wall modification and linkage-interconversion by new synthetic methods based on Leuckart−Wallach reduction with formic acid and ammonium formate. Frameworks connected entirely by secondary amine linkages, mixed amine/ imine bonds, and partially formylated amine linkages are obtained in a single step from imine-linked frameworks or directly from corresponding linkers in a one-pot crystallization-reduction approach. The new, 2D amine-linked covalent organic frameworks, rPI-3-COF, rTTI-COF, and rPy1P-COF, are obtained with high crystallinity and large surface areas. Secondary amines, installed as reactive sites on the pore wall, enable further postsynthetic functionalization to access tailored covalent organic frameworks, with increased hydrolytic stability, as potential heterogeneous catalysts.

We report herein the use of a dual catalytic system comprising a Lewis base catalyst such as quinuclidin‐3‐ol or 4‐dimethylaminopyridine and a photoredox catalyst to generate carbon radicals from either boronic acids or esters. This system enabled a wide range of alkyl boronic esters and aryl or alkyl boronic acids to react with electron‐deficient olefins via radical addition to efficiently form C−C coupled products in a redox‐neutral fashion. The Lewis base catalyst was shown to form a redox‐active complex with either the boronic esters or the trimeric form of the boronic acids (boroxines) in solution.

Carbon nitrides constitute a class of earth‐abundant polymeric semiconductors, which have high potential for tunability on a molecular level, despite their high chemical and thermal inertness. Here the first postsynthetic modification of the 2D carbon nitride poly(heptazine imide) (PHI) is reported, which is decorated with terminal melamine (Mel) moieties by a functional group interconversion. The covalent attachment of this group is verified based with a suite of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques supported by quantum–chemical calculations. Using triethanolamine as a sacrificial electron donor, Mel‐PHI outperforms most other carbon nitrides in terms of hydrogen evolution rate (5570 µmol h−1 g−1), while maintaining the intrinsic light storing properties of PHI. The origin of the observed superior photocatalytic performance is traced back to a modified surface electronic structure and enhanced interfacial interactions with the amphiphile triethanolamine, which imparts improved colloidal stability to the catalyst particles especially in contrast to methanol used as donor. However, this high activity can be limited by oxidation products of donor reversibly building up at the surface, thus blocking active centers. The findings lay out the importance of surface functionalization to engineer the catalyst–solution interface, an underappreciated tuning parameter in photocatalytic reaction design.

We propose two-dimensional poly(heptazine imide) (PHI) carbon nitride microparticles as light-driven microswimmers in various ionic and biological media. Their high-speed (15 to 23 micrometer per second; 9.5 ± 5.4 body lengths per second) swimming in multicomponent ionic solutions with concentrations up to 5 M and without dedicated fuels is demonstrated, overcoming one of the bottlenecks of previous light-driven microswimmers. Such high ion tolerance is attributed to a favorable interplay between the particle’s textural and structural nanoporosity and optoionic properties, facilitating ionic interactions in solutions with high salinity. Biocompatibility of these microswimmers is validated by cell viability tests with three different cell lines and primary cells. The nanopores of the swimmers are loaded with a model cancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), resulting in a high (185%) loading efficiency without passive release. Controlled drug release is reported under different pH conditions and can be triggered on-demand by illumination. Light-triggered, boosted release of DOX and its active degradation products are demonstrated under oxygen-poor conditions using the intrinsic, environmentally sensitive and light-induced charge storage properties of PHI, which could enable future theranostic applications in oxygen-deprived tumor regions. These organic PHI microswimmers simultaneously address the current light-driven microswimmer challenges of high ion tolerance, fuel-free high-speed propulsion in biological media, biocompatibility, and controlled on-demand cargo release toward their biomedical, environmental, and other potential applications.

We report an acridium-based organic photocatalyst as an efficient replacement for iridium-based photocatalysts to oxidise boronic acid derivatives by a single electron process. Furthermore, we applied the developed catalytic system to the synthesis of four active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). A straightforward scale up approach using continuous flow photoreactors is also reported affording gram an hour throughput.

As covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are coming of age, the lack of effective approaches to achieve crystalline and centimeter-scale-homogeneous COF films remains a significant bottleneck toward advancing the application of COFs in optoelectronic devices. Here, we present the synthesis of colloidal COF nanoplates, with lateral sizes of ∼200 nm and average heights of 35 nm, and their utilization as photocathodes for solar hydrogen evolution. The resulting COF nanoplate colloid exhibits a unimodal particle-size distribution and an exceptional colloidal stability without showing agglomeration after storage for 10 months and enables smooth, homogeneous, and thickness-tunable COF nanofilms via spin coating. Photoelectrodes comprising COF nanofilms were fabricated for photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar-to-hydrogen conversion. By rationally designing multicomponent photoelectrode architectures including a polymer donor/COF heterojunction and a hole-transport layer, charge recombination in COFs is mitigated, resulting in a significantly increased photocurrent density and an extremely positive onset potential for PEC hydrogen evolution (over +1 V against the reversible hydrogen electrode), among the best of classical semiconductor-based photocathodes. This work thus paves the way toward fabricating solution-processed large-scale COF nanofilms and heterojunction architectures and their use in solar-energy-conversion devices.

Abstract:We report herein the use of ad ual catalytic system comprising aL ewis base catalyst such as quinuclidin-3-ol or 4-dimethylaminopyridine and ap hotoredox catalyst to generate carbon radicals from either boronic acids or esters.T his system enabled awide range of alkylboronic esters and aryl or alkylb oronic acids to react with electron-deficient olefins via radical addition to efficiently form C À Cc oupled products in aredox-neutral fashion. The Lewis base catalyst was shown to form ar edox-active complex with either the boronic esters or the trimeric form of the boronic acids (boroxines) in solution.Carbon-centered radicals are as ynthetically powerful class of reactive intermediates.[1] They are particularly attractive in the context of C À Cb ond-forming reactions, [2] overcoming problems often associated with two-electron processes.[3] By enabling visible-light-promoted single electron transfer, photoredox catalysis has become am ethod of choice for the single-electron reduction or oxidation of organic substrates and allows to generate open-shell intermediates in amild and selective fashion.[4] Ar ange of reductive or oxidative carbon radical precursors are now available to generate carbon radicals in the context of ap hotocatalytic cycle.[5] Oxidative carbon radical precursors are often anionic species suffering from poor solubility in common organic solvents.F or example,e xtensively studied organoborates [6] possess an electron-rich B(sp 3 )m oiety that can be subjected to singleelectron oxidation, leading to an eutral carbon radical after CÀBbond cleavage (Scheme 1A).Despite their ubiquity as reagents in organic synthesis [7] and in biologically active molecules, [8] theuse of boronic acid derivatives to generate carbon-centered radicals remains underexplored.[9] Owing to their high oxidation potentials, they have received much less attention in this regard, with few reports making use of strong stoichiometric oxidants or anodic oxidation.[10] We recently demonstrated that benzyl boronic esters can undergo single-electron oxidation under photoredox conditions when their vacant porbital is engaged in ad ative bond with the norbital of as toichiometric Lewis base (LB) additive (Scheme 1B).[11] Lewis base catalysis was introduced as aconcept by Denmark to enhance the reactivity of electrophilic n*, p*, and s*orbitals.[12] Based on this knowledge,w eh ypothesized that the use of ac atalytic amount of an organic Lewis base would be av iable option for the photoredox activation of boronic acids and esters. [13] Herein, we describe adual catalytic method to effectively form alkyl and aryl radicals from aw ide array of boronic esters and acids by direct photoredox single-electron oxidation under mild and safe conditions,without the requirement for stoichiometric activators or oxidants.T hese reactive species were further engaged in intermolecular C À Cb ondforming processes to deliver desirable C(sp 3 )ÀC(sp 3 )a nd C(sp 2 )ÀC(sp 3 )bonds in ar edox-neutral fashion. Thea ddition of electron-rich carbon...