Gaëlle Le Fer on how polymers can program the organization of covalent organic frameworks

On 27 October, Dr. Gaëlle Le Fer, CNRS researcher at the Unité Matériaux et Transformations (UMET, Université de Lille, France), delivered the group seminar “Programming COF organization across length scales: from polymer-guided crystallization to hierarchical assemblies” at the Faculty of Chemistry Auditorium. She was invited by Prof. Alejandro J. Müller.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are crystalline porous materials whose topology and pore size can be precisely programmed through the molecular design of their building blocks. Dr. Le Fer presented an approach that combines reticular and macromolecular chemistry, using linear polymers to guide nucleation, crystal growth and the assembly of crystalline domains.

This strategy gives access to new COF particle architectures, such as raspberry-like particles with radial crystal orientation and hollow spheres with porous membranes that can work as size-selective microreactors. The results show that COFs are not only static porous solids, but can also behave as dynamic systems that reorganize in response to their environment.