Two‐in‐One Strategy for Photoinduced Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization Using Cu(I)‐Phenothiazine Integrated Covalent Organic Frameworks

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The concurrent development of innovative photocatalysts (PCs) that achieve fast reaction rates while ensuring efficient catalyst recycling remains a significant challenge for large‐scale polymer production. Herein, we present a “two‐in‐one” strategy that combines a photoactive component with a cyclic trinuclear Cu(I)‐incorporated triangular complex as the intrinsic copper source within three imine‐linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs). As‐synthesized photoactive Cu(I)‐containing COFs demonstrated exceptional performance in aqueous photoinduced atom transfer radical polymerization (photo‐ATRP), achieving a record‐breaking turnover number (TON) of 1640 and turnover frequency (TOF) of 82 min −1 , while maintaining narrow polymer dispersity of 1.20. Such performance surpasses previously reported heterogeneous PCs designed for photo‐ATRP. Notably, the COF‐encapsulated “two‐in‐one” catalytic design endows the system with remarkable operational stability and near‐quantitative catalyst recovery. More importantly, such new COFs demonstrate outstanding process compatibility, enabling scalable production of well‐defined block copolymers in a single microreactor, without intermediate purification.
Funding Information
  • Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52321002)
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFF0505200)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (52573229 52173205)

This publication has 63 references indexed in Scilit: