Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Formamidine has been established as a versatile molecule in agriculture, organic solar cells, and as a ligand in organometallic catalysis. Despite, formamidine-based materials have remained largely unexplored due to challenges in achieving controlled polymerization. In this direction, we introduce a one-pot microwave-assisted diamine-orthoformate condensation strategy to synthesize formamidine-linked conjugated covalent organic frameworks (FOF-2 and FOF-3). Interestingly, the formamidine units of FOFs enable affinity towards urea, and that allowed us to use as metal-free electrocatalysts for the urea oxidation reaction (UOR) in alkaline media. FOF-2 demonstrates an onset potential value of 1.47 V (vs RHE) and a lower overpotential. The ordered microporous conjugated backbone facilitates charge and mass transport in FOFs. These findings demonstrate that metal-free FOFs can serve as a platform for UOR and open new directions toward organic framework-based electrocatalysts for sustainable energy conversion.
Source: ChemRxiv
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221537708