Influence laws of air gap structure manipulation of covalent organic frameworks on dielectric properties and exciton effects for photopolymerization

Boosting the dissociation of excitons is essential to enhance the photocatalytic efficiency. However, the relationship between the structure of the catalyst and the exciton effect on the photocatalytic activity is still unclear as the main problem. Here, it is proposed that as a descriptive factor, an experimentally measurable dielectric constant (ε(r)) is available to quantitatively describe its relationship with exciton binding energy (E(b)) and photocatalytic activity. With tuning the linker of covalent organic frameworks (COFs), the “air gap” structure is oriented to shrink, leading to an increased ε(r) of COFs and a lower E(b) to facilitate exciton dissociation. Meanwhile, taking “water-/oxygen-fueled” photo-induced electron transfer reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization as a demonstration platform, it can be seen that COFs with a small “air gap” structure have relatively superior photocatalytic activity. This provides important implications for the evolution of efficient photocatalysts.