Supramolecular Reinforcement of a Large Pore 2D Covalent Organic Framework

Two dimensional covalent organic frameworks (2D-COFs) are a class of crystalline porous organic polymers that consist of covalently linked, two dimensional sheets that can stack together through non-covalent interactions. Here we report the synthesis of a novel COF, called PyCOFamide, which has an experimentally observed pore size that is greater than 6 nm in diameter. This is among the largest pore size reported to date for a 2D-COF. PyCOFamide exhibits permanent porosity and high crystallinity as evidenced by the nitrogen adsorption, powder X-ray diffraction, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. We show that the pore size of PyCOFamide is large enough to accommodate fluorescent proteins such as Superfolder green fluorescent protein and mNeonGreen. This work demonstrates the utility of non-covalent structural reinforcement in 2D-COFs to produce larger, persistent pore sizes than previously possible.