In April 2026, Nature Communications published the work of Prof. Li Xin (South China Agricultural University) and Prof. Yang Qihua (Zhejiang Normal University) on hot-electron-enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution in covalent organic frameworks (first authors: Huang Can, Mo Yingyin, Gao Ruiqi; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-71258-6).
Starting from a well-stacked cyano COF, the team built dislocation layers via a template method and further introduced methoxy groups to form a polarized dislocation structure.
The average hot-electron lifetime was extended from 0.206 +/- 0.020 ps in pristine CN-COF to 1.74 +/- 0.23 ps with interlayer dislocation, and reached 37.1 +/- 2.0 ps in the polarized CN/OCH3-dlCOF - a ~180-fold enhancement.
With ascorbic acid as the sacrificial agent and Pt as co-catalyst, CN/OCH3-dlCOF delivered an H2 evolution rate of 429.4 +/- 3.7 mmol g-1 h-1 and an apparent quantum yield of 85.1 +/- 1.0% at 420 nm.
Interlayer dislocation breaks the high symmetry of the COF, inducing band anti-crossing at the K point and opening a conduction-band gap that suppresses phonon scattering; interlayer polarization lowers the exciton binding energy and carrier recombination while enhancing the hot-phonon bottleneck effect.
Read the Chinese report: Nat. Commun.: hot electrons in COFs.
