Crystalline fibres of a covalent organic framework through bottom-up microfluidic synthesis

A microfluidic chip has been used to prepare fibres of a porous polymer with high structural order, setting a precedent for the generation of a wide variety of materials using this reagent mixing approach that provides unique materials not accessible easily through bulk processes. The reaction between 1,3,5-tris(4-aminophenyl)benzene and 1,3,5-benzenetricarbaldehyde in acetic acid under continuous microfluidic flow conditions leads to the formation of a highly crystalline and porous covalent organic framework (hereafter denoted as MF-COF-1), consisting of fibrillar micro-structures, which have mechanical stability that allows for direct drawing of objects on a surfaceFinancial support from Spanish Government (Projects MAT2013-46753-C2-1-P and CTQ2014-53486-R) and FEDER are acknowledged. A. A. and J. P. L. would like to thank the financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through the project no. 200021_16017