Advances in solvent-free syntheses of covalent organic frameworks towards catalysis and battery applications

Abstract

The solvent-free syntheses of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) can eliminate the toxic and volatile solvents, facilitate processing and enable large-scale production to lower the cost, acting as an emerging and green synthetic method towards important applications like catalysis or battery. In this review, we will focus on the solvent-free syntheses of COFs, aiming at summarizing synthesis methods, available COFs structures and properties, and their related applications in catalysis (e.g., photocatalytic hydrogen evolution or H2O2 synthesis, electrocatalytic CO2 reduction or water splitting, etc.) and battery (e.g., hydrogen fuel cells, lithium/potassium-ion batteries, Zn-air batteries and supercapacitors, etc.). We will also briefly outlook the current challenges and prospects faced in the solvent-free syntheses of COFs, aiming to guide the recent advancements and future directions for the development of solvent-free synthesized COFs and their related applications.