Sulfone-containing covalent organic frameworks for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water
Open accessAbstract
Nature uses organic molecules for light harvesting and photosynthesis, but most man-made water splitting catalysts are inorganic semiconductors. Organic photocatalysts, while attractive because of their synthetic tunability, tend to have low quantum efficiencies for water splitting. Here we present a crystalline covalent organic framework (COF) based on a benzo-bis(benzothiophene sulfone) moiety that shows a much higher activity for photochemical hydrogen evolution than its amorphous or semicrystalline counterparts. The COF is stable under long-term visible irradiation and shows steady photochemical hydrogen evolution with a sacrificial electron donor for at least 50 hours. We attribute the high quantum efficiency of fused-sulfone-COF to its crystallinity, its strong visible light absorption, and its wettable, hydrophilic 3.2 nm mesopores. These pores allow the framework to be dye-sensitized, leading to a further 61% enhancement in the hydrogen evolution rate up to 16.3 mmol g-1 h-1. The COF also retained its photocatalytic activity when cast as a thin film onto a support.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The photocatalytic aerogel achieved a hydrogen generation rate of 60.7 mmol m−2 h−1, significantly outperforming conventional thin-film photocatalytic platforms.
“As a result, the photocatalytic aerogels achieved a high hydrogen generation rate of 60.7 mmol m 2 h 1 , significantly outperforming the conventional thin-film photocatalytic platforms.”
From Gradient-structured directional porous floatable aerogels for effective solar-driven hydrogen production and steam generation (2025) · cites this paper as [60]
The section “Photocatalysis experiments with thin COF films” (page unavailable) reports thin-film hydrogen evolution rates of 24.9 and 15.8 mmol m−2 h−1, providing a comparison point below 60.7. It does not report a photocatalytic aerogel, its claimed 60.7 rate, or a direct comparison establishing that it significantly outperformed thin films. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 80 · Cited by 1,320
Research works printed but not linked: 12
- Sivula, K. & van de Krol, R. Semiconducting materials for photoelectrochemical energy conversion. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 15010 (2016).
- Chen, S., Takata, T. & Domen, K. Particulate photocatalysts for overall water splitting. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2, 17050 (2017).
- Schwab, M. G. et al. Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution through fully conjugated poly(azomethine) networks. Chem. Commun. 46, 8932 (2010).
- Woods, D. J., Sprick, R. S., Smith, C. L., Cowan, A. J. & Cooper, A. I. A solution- processable polymer photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution from water. Adv. Energy Mater. 7, 1700479 (2017).
- Wang, L. et al. Conjugated microporous polymer nanosheets for overall water splitting using visible light. Adv. Mater. 29, 1702428 (2017).
- Huang, N., Wang, P. & Jiang, D. Covalent organic frameworks: a materials platform for structural and functional designs. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16068 (2016).
- Vyas, V. S. et al. A tunable azine covalent organic framework platform for visible light- induced hydrogen generation. Nat. Commun. 6, 8508 (2015).
- Slater, A. G. & Cooper, A. I. Function-led design of new porous materials. Science 348, 8075 (2015).
- Evans, A. et al. Seeded growth of single-crystal two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks. Science 10.1126/science.aar7883 (2018). · DOI
- Teets, T. S. & Nocera, D. G. Photocatalytic hydrogen production. Chem. Commun. 47, 9268 (2011).
- Grimme, S., Antony, J., Ehrlich, S. & Krieg, H. A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu. J. Chem. Phys. 132, 154104 (2010).
- Heyd, J., Scuseria, G. E. & Ernzerhof, M. Erratum: "Hybrid functionals based on a screened Coulomb potential". J. Chem. Phys. 124, 219906 (2006).
- Authors
- Wang, X., Chen, L., Chong, S. Y., Little, M. A., Wu, Y., Zhu, W.-H., Clowes, R., Yan, Y., Zwijnenburg, M. A., Sprick, R. S., & Cooper, A. I.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- East China University of Science and Technology (CN)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Cooper, Andrew I.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Chemistry
- Published
- 2018-10-01
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1180-1189
- ISSN
- 1755-4330 (ISSN-L)
- 1755-4349
- OpenAlex
- W2893441209
- Cited by
- 1,320
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 77 · 2025: 178 · 2024: 222 · 2023: 185 · 2022: 193 · 2021: 189 · 2020: 169 · 2019: 104 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 43.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Chemistry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde) (acceptedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Leverhulme Trust
- European Commission
- China Scholarship Council
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L000202/1, EP/N004884/1, EP/K000225/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Covalent Organic Framework Applications
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells
- Keywords
- covalent organic frameworks, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, water splitting, crystallinity, visible light absorption, mesopores, dye-sensitized photocatalysis, thin film photocatalyst, sacrificial electron donor, quantum efficiency
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
