Pyrene‐Based Covalent Organic Frameworks for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Peroxide Production
Jiamin Sun, Himanshu Sekhar Jena, Chidharth Krishnaraj, Kuber Singh Rawat, Sara Abednatanzi, Jeet Chakraborty, Andreas Laemont, Wanlu Liu, Hui Chen, Ying‐Ya Liu, Karen Leus, Henk Vrielinck, Véronique Van Speybroeck, Pascal Van Der Voort
Abstract
Abstract Four highly porous covalent organic frameworks (COFs) containing pyrene units were prepared and explored for photocatalytic H 2 O 2 production. The experimental studies are complemented by density functional theory calculations, proving that the pyrene unit is more active for H 2 O 2 production than the bipyridine and (diarylamino)benzene units reported previously. H 2 O 2 decomposition experiments verified that the distribution of pyrene units over a large surface area of COFs plays an important role in catalytic performance. The Py‐Py‐COF though contains more pyrene units than other COFs which induces a high H 2 O 2 decomposition due to a dense concentration of pyrene in close proximity over a limited surface area. Therefore, a two‐phase reaction system (water‐benzyl alcohol) was employed to inhibit H 2 O 2 decomposition. This is the first report on applying pyrene‐based COFs in a two‐phase system for photocatalytic H 2 O 2 generation.