Abstract
Perfluorinated covalent triazine frameworks (F-CTFs) have shown unique features and attractive performance in separation and catalysis. However, state-of-the-art F-CTFs synthesized via the ZnCl2-promoted procedure have quite low fluorine contents due to C−F bond cleavage induced by chloride (a Lewis base) and the harsh conditions deployed (400–700 °C). Fabricating F-CTFs with high fluorine contents (>30 wt %) remains challenging. Herein, we present a low-temperature ionothermal approach (275 °C) to prepare F-CTFs, which is achieved via polymerization of tetrafluoroterephthalonitrile (TFPN) over the Lewis superacids, e.g., zinc triflimide [Zn(NTf2)2] without side reactions. With low catalyst loading (equimolar), F-CTFs are afforded with high fluorine content (31 wt %), surface area up to 367 m2 g−1, and micropores around 1.1 nm. The highly hydrophobic F-CTF-1 exhibits good capability to boost electroreduction of CO2 to CO, with faradaic efficiency of 95.7 % at −0.8 V and high current density (−141 mA cm−2) surpassing most of the metal-free electrocatalysts.
