Covalent Triazine Frameworks with Defective Accumulation Sites: Exceptionally Modulated Electronic Structure for Solar-Driven Oxidative Activation of Peroxymonosulfate

: Precisely tailoring the electronic structure and surface chemistry of metal-free covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) for efficient photoactivation of oxyanions is environmentally desirable but still challenging. Of interest to us in this work was to construct artificial defective accumulation sites into a CTF network (CTF-SDx) to synchronously modulate both thermodynamic (e.g., band structure) and kinetic (e.g., charge separation/transfer/utilization and surface adsorption) behaviors and probe how the transformation affected the subsequent activation mechanism of peroxymonosulfate (PMS). With the incorporation of terminal cyano (-CN) groups and boron (B) dopants, the delocalized CTF-SD underwent a narrowed electronic energy gap for increased optical absorption as well as a downshifted valence band position for enhanced oxidation capacity. Moreover, the localized charge accumulation regions induced by the electron-withdrawing -CN groups facilitated the exciton dissociation process, while the adjacent electron-deficient areas enabled strong affinity toward PMS molecules. All of these merits impelled the photoactivation reaction with PMS, and a 15-fold enhancement of bisphenol-A (BPA) removal was found in the CTFSD2/PMS/vis system compared with the corresponding pristine CTF system. Mechanistic investigations demonstrated that this system decomposed organics primarily through a singlet oxygen-mediated nonradical process, which originated from PMS oxidative activation over photoinduced holes initiated by an electron transfer process, thereby opening a new avenue for designing an efficient PMS activation strategy for the selective oxidation of organic pollutants.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the precise tailoring of the electronic structure and surface chemistry of metal-free covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) for efficient photoactivation of oxyanions. The incorporation of cyano (-CN) groups and boron (B) dopants in CTF-SD leads to enhanced optical absorption and oxidation capacity. The localized charge accumulation regions and electron-deficient areas in CTF-SD facilitate exciton dissociation and improve the affinity toward peroxymonosulfate (PMS) molecules, resulting in a 15-fold enhancement of bisphenol-A (BPA) removal compared to pristine CTF system.