Mixed-metal Ionothermal Synthesis of Metallophthalocyanine Covalent Organic Frameworks for CO2 Capture and Conversion

Phthalocyanines (PCs) are intriguing building blocks owing to their stability, physicochemical and catalytic properties. Although PC-based polymers have been reported before, many suffer from relatively low stability, crystallinity, and low surface areas. Utilizing a mixed metal salt ionothermal approach, we report the synthesis of a series of metallophthalocyanine-based covalent organic frameworks (COFs) starting from 1,2,4,5-tetracyanobenzene and 2,3,6,7-tetracyanoanthracene to form the corresponding COFs named M-pPPCs and M-anPPCs, respectively. The obtained COFs followed the Irving-Williams series in their metal contents, surface areas, and pore volume and featured excellent CO2 uptake capacities up to 7.6 mmol g-1 at 273 K, 1.1 bar. We also investigated the growth of the Co-pPPC and Co-anPPC on a highly conductive carbon nanofiber and demonstrated their high catalytic activity in the electrochemical CO2 reduction, which showed Faradaic efficiencies towards CO up to 74% at -0.64 V vs. RHE.