Blending Aryl Ketone in Covalent Organic Frameworks to Promote Photoinduced Electron Transfer
Mingjie Liu, Junnan Liu, Jing Li, Zheng‐Hua Zhao, Kai Zhou, Yueming Li, Peipei He, Jiashu Wu, Zongbi Bao, Qiwei Yang, Yiwen Yang, Qilong Ren, Zhiguo Zhang
Abstract
Aryl-ketone derivatives have been acknowledged as promising organic photocatalysts for photosynthesis. However, they are limited by their photostability and have been less explored for photoinduced electron transfer (PET) applications. Herein we demonstrate a novel strategy to cover the shortage of aryl-ketone photocatalysts and control the photoreactivity by implanting symmetric aryl ketones into the conjugated covalent organic frameworks (COFs). To prove the concept, three comparative materials with the same topology and varied electronic structures were built, adopting truxenone knot and functionalized terephthalaldehyde linkers. Spectroscopic investigation and excited carrier dynamics analysis disclosed improvements in the photostability and electronic transfer efficiency as well as the structure–performance relationships toward N -aryl tetrahydroisoquinoline oxidation. This system provides a robust rule of thumb for designing new-generation aryl-ketone photocatalysts.