Porous Covalent Organic Frameworks for Water Purification

Water contamination is a major concern for a sustainable water cycle, as wastes from both industrial and domestic origins are constantly adding hazardous contents to the water bodies. Therefore, removal of such contaminants is urgently necessary to maintain a clean water cycle.

To address this challenge, our team is developing functional porous materials that can selectively remove harmful contaminants through adsorption and nanofiltration. The high surface area along with ordered and tunable pore architectures of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are key characteristics for removing such hazardous contaminants.

Specifically, we are focusing on macrocycle based organic networks where the cavity generated from the macrocyclic host provides additional interactions and thus proven very efficient in removing both organic and inorganic pollutants.

Further use of photocatalytic property is currently underway to decompose hazardous and bio-accumulating water contaminants such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).