Recent Advances in Covalent Organic Frameworks for Efficient Lead Ions Remediation: Insights Into Adsorption Mechanism and Environmental Potential

ABSTRACT Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) have emerged as highly promising materials in diverse applications, as evidenced by the sharp rise in research publications from 2017–2025. They are particularly attractive for adsorption, water purification, energy storage, and gas sensing. This review focuses on the preparation, structural design, and practical application of COFs for Pb(II) removal, highlighting the importance of functional groups, and pore architecture, in achieving high adsorption performance. Mechanistic insights are provided through advanced spectroscopic techniques, and molecular‐level theoretical simulations, illustrating adsorption pathways. Finally, challenges and future directions for practical environmental applications are highlighted. A common limitation is their susceptibility to hydrolysis that water can cleave the dynamic covalent bonds (e.g., imine, boronate ester), causing framework collapse and a loss of adsorption capacity is also discussed in this review. This review also discusses the challenges that must be addressed for the practical application of COFs in environmental remediation.