Construction of donor–acceptor covalent organic framework (D-A COFs) photocatalysts is regarded as promising path to promote photocatalytic reduction of uranium, but faces greater challenge due to high exciton binding energies (Eb). In this work, we construct a D-A COF (named Py-DPP-COF) with dye diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) unit as acceptor to minimize the Eb (56.5 meV). Importantly, experimental and computational studies reveal that DPP unit as adsorption and photocatalytic active sites play a pivotal role for catalyzing photoreduction of UVI to UIV. The Py-DPP-COF not only broadens the visible light absorption and promotes charge transfer, but also enhances interfacial mass transfer, achieving a higher uranium extraction capacity of 903.6 mg g−1. To our knowledge, this is the first application of DPP-based COFs for photocatalytic reduction of uranium, which greatly inspires the exploration of novel COFs photocatalysts for photo-induced radionuclide removal.
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