HBU Research Team Publishes in National Science Review

Associate Professor Lan Xingwang’s research team at the School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hebei University, has achieved another significant advance in the field of covalent organic framework (COF) photocatalytic CO2 conversion. The related work, “Charge-mediated Cuδ+ sites in dimension-controlled covalent organic frameworks enable base-free continuous photothermal CO2 cyclization,” with Hebei University as the first affiliated institution, was published in the international top-tier journal National Science Review (2025, nwaf350, IF = 17.1). Associate Professor Lan Xingwang and PhD student Zhang Yize are co–first authors of the paper. Associate Professor Lan and Professors Bai Guoyi and Zhang Zhiming from Tianjin University of Technology are co-corresponding authors.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of porous organic polymers with well-defined crystalline structures, featuring uniform and regularly arranged pore systems. They show broad application prospects in gas storage and separation, catalysis, and optoelectronic materials. In recent years, because of their highly conjugated backbones and excellent photoresponse characteristics, COF materials have attracted wide attention in photocatalysis research. Topology exerts a decisive influence on their photocatalytic performance; however, the structure–activity relationship between dimension-dependent charge polarization behavior at catalytic active sites and catalytic performance remains insufficiently elucidated. To address this, the research team precisely constructed porphyrin-based COF materials with distinct dimensional features (two-dimensional and one-dimensional) and proposed a microenvironment regulation strategy based on dimensional engineering to directionally optimize the local electronic and spatial structures of copper active centers. Combined systematic characterization and theoretical calculations indicate that the two-dimensional COF, owing to the flexibility of its molecular backbone and highly ordered mesoporous channels, not only promotes nonradiative transitions of photogenerated carriers but also significantly enhances mass transfer efficiency of reactants; concurrently, its layered stacking structure dynamically regulates the electronic state of Cuδ+ (1 ≤ δ ≤ 2) via photothermal synergistic effects, thereby cooperatively enhancing substrate adsorption and activation. Under visible light irradiation and base-free conditions, this two-dimensional copper-based COF achieved a product yield approaching 99.9% in the photocatalytic carboxylative cyclization of propargylamines with CO2. Based on its excellent catalytic performance, the team further developed a continuous-flow photothermal catalytic reaction system that demonstrated outstanding stability and successfully produced 2.143 grams of pharmaceutical-grade 2-oxazolidinone with purity exceeding 95%. This study not only reveals the key mechanisms by which dimensional engineering regulates the catalytic microenvironment but also provides new ideas for designing continuous, high-performance CO2 conversion processes using COFs.

Since the beginning of this year, Associate Professor Lan Xingwang and colleagues have achieved a series of important results in COF photocatalysis; related works have been published in the renowned chemistry journal Chemical Science (2025, 16, 13893–13904, IF = 7.4; 2025, DOI: 10.1039/d5sc04639d). The above work was strongly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Hebei Provincial Department of Education Young Talent Project, the Hebei Natural Science Foundation, and the Hebei University Institute of Life Sciences and Green Development.

Article link:

[1]https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf350

[2]https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC02835C

[3]https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC04639D

(Contributed by the School of Chemistry and Materials Science and the Institute for Science and Technology Innovation)