Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Covalent Organic Frameworks from Prochiral Monomers for Heterogeneous Asymmetric Catalysis

Direct synthesis, postsynthetic modification, and chiral induction have been recognized as three powerful methods to synthesize chiral covalent organic frameworks (CCOFs). However, catalytic asymmetric methodology, as the most important and effective synthetic approach to access chiral organics, has not been enabled for CCOFs synthesis thus far. Herein we report, for the first time, the construction of CCOFs from prochiral monomers via catalytic asymmetric polymerization. The obtained propargylamine-linked CCOFs can be the highly reusable chiral catalysts to promote asymmetric Michael addition reactions. The concept of catalytic asymmetric polymerization might open a new route for constructing the CCOFs that are not possible with the existing CCOF synthetic methods.