Enhanced Structural Organization in Covalent Organic Frameworks Through Fluorination

Abstract Here, we report a structure–function study of imine covalent organic frameworks (COFs) comparing a series of novel fluorine‐containing monomers to their non‐fluorinated analogues. We found that the fluorine‐containing monomers produced 2D‐COFs with not only greatly improved surface areas (over 2000 m 2 g −1 compared to 760 m 2 g −1 for the non‐fluorinated analogue), but also with improved crystallinity and larger, more defined pore diameters. We then studied the formation of these COFs under varying reaction times and temperatures to obtain a greater insight into their mechanism of formation.