Quinone-based Covalent Organic Frameworks for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a new kind of crystalline organic porous polymers with high specific surface area, regular structure and designability, , which has been applied in many domains. However, functionalized covalent organic frameworks still need to be further explored. Herein, a quinone-based COF(2, 6-diaminoanthraquinone-COF , DAAQ-COF) was synthesized by using anthraquinone as building blocks, and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD ) , nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA ) etc. It is showed that the synthesized DAAQ-COF has high crystallinity and specific surface area (577 m(2) /g). Furthermore , quinone-functionalized metal-free DAAQ-COF exhibits effective oxygen evolution reduction(OER) , with a overpotential of 389 mV at 10 mA/cm(2) and a Tafel slope of 135 mV/dec. The introduced quinone group effectively changes the electronic structure and chemical properties of the COF framework, as well as the high crystallinity and specific surface area of the COF material itself, which allows the reactant more efficiently accessible to the active sites for better OER performance. These results show that the rational design of functionalized COFs can promote the development of their broader application prospects in OER.