Mechanochemical Synthesis of Flexible Ionic Covalent Organic Frameworks With Antibacterial Activity

The development of efficient, green synthetic approaches that can be easily scaled up to enable the practical applications of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is highly desired. However, the current COF preparation still heavily relies on traditional solvothermal synthesis, which usually involves harsh experimental conditions. Here we report a rapid, atom-economical, mechanochemical synthesis of flexible ionic COFs (ICOFs) at room temperature by using diol and LiBH₄ (or NaBH₄) as the starting materials. The ICOF products can be obtained on a multi-gram (10 g) scale under solvent-free conditions within 15 min. The resulting materials showed good crystallinity, excellent solvent stability, and also exhibited remarkable antibacterial activity, suggesting their potential as antibacterial candidates.