Phenothiazine core promoted charge transfer in conjugated microporous polymers for photocatalytic Ugi-type reaction and aerobic selenation of indoles

Task-specific design and construction of conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) for classic organic transformation is highly significant but challenging. Herein, we report strategy to promote charge transfer in CMPs using phenothiazine unit as a core and commonly used building blocks (carbazole/benzene) as the linker. Featuring by wide visible-light absorption, narrow optical bandgap, and facilitated charge transfer, phenothiazine-core CMPs exhibited superior photocatalytic performance towards Ugi-type reaction and aerobic selenation of indoles compared with those phenothiazine-free counterparts and commonly reported photocatalysts. Furthermore, the photocatalytic enhancement achieved in the designed CMPs system represents a substantial advance and verifies the viability of a simple strategy to tailor the photophysical properties of CMPs, which may facilitate the design of new photocatalysts.