Industrialization of Covalent Organic Frameworks

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have attracted broad interest because of their well-defined, customizable, highly stable, and porous structures. COFs have shown significant potential for various practical applications, such as gas storage/purification, drug purification, water treatment, catalysis, and battery applications. Scaling up COFs is highly desirable to meet industrial application demands but is hindered by the limitations of synthesis methods and the high cost of reactants. Recently, emerging green synthesis methods, such as mechanochemical synthesis and flux synthesis, have offered promising solutions to these challenges (e.g., ton-scale production of COFs has been achieved by companies recently). This Perspective provides an overview of the state of the art with respect to the industrial production of COFs and discusses factors influencing the large-scale production of COFs. Directions and opportunities for improving the performance and sustainability of COFs toward industrial applications are also emphasized.