Metalation of Catechol-Functionalized Defective Covalent Organic Frameworks for Lewis Acid Catalysis

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have emerged as a fascinating crystalline porous material and are widely used in the field of catalysis. However, developing simple approaches to fabricate conjugated COFs with specific functional groups remains a significant challenge. In this study, the construction of defective COF-LZU1 with Lewis acid sites embedded into the frameworks is fulfilled by a facile solvent-assisted ligand exchange method. A monodentate ligand, protocatechualdehyde, is successfully introduced into the skeleton of COF-LZU1, which endows the defects in the structure of COF-LZU1 via replacement of the original coordinated benzene-1,3,5-tricarbaldehyde ligand. As-synthesized defective COF-LZU1 decorated with protocatechualdehyde is rich of free hydroxy groups for chelating with active metal ions. Specifically, after combining with Fe³⁺ , the defective COF-LZU1 shows excellent activity in catalytic alcoholysis of epoxides under mild conditions. The method reported here will open up the opportunity to incorporate different functional groups into COFs and enrich the strategies for creating new types of porous catalysts.