From Days to Hours: A Faster Way to Make a Promising New Catalyst

Scientists from Clark Atlanta University and the Molecular Foundry at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered a faster, more sustainable method for making metal-encapsulated covalent organic frameworks – materials that have the potential to play a crucial role in catalysis, energy storage, and chemical sensing. The new one-step, room-temperature process eliminates the need for toxic solvents and significantly reduces the production time from several days to just one hour. The covalent organic frameworks were evaluated to see how porous and crystalline they are and how much metal was added to the structure. Also, powerful transmission electron microscopes were used to visualize the covalent organic framework structure and the distribution of metal throughout.