Syntheses of Covalent Organic Frameworks via a One-Pot Suzuki Coupling and Schiff's Base Reaction for C₂H₄/C₃H₆ Separation

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) featuring permanent porosity, designable topologies, and tailorable functionalities have attracted great interest in the past two decades. Developing efficient modular approaches to rationally constructing COFs from a set of molecules via covalent linking has been long pursued. Herein, we report a facile one-pot strategy to prepare COFs via an irreversible Suzuki coupling reaction followed by a reversible Schiff's base reaction without the need for intermediate isolation. Gram-scale ordered frameworks with kgm topology and rich porosities can be obtained by using diamino-aryl halide and dialdehyde aryl-borate compounds as monomers. The resultant microporous CR-COFs were used for efficient C₂H₄/C₃H₆ separation. This strategy reduces the waste generated and efforts consumed by stepwise reactions and relative purification processes, making the large-scale syntheses of stable COFs feasible. Moreover, it offers a novel modular approach to designing COF materials.