Twenty Years of COF-1: The Spark That Launched a Field and Its Mysteries That Remain
Abstract
COF-1, reported in 2005, was the first covalent organic framework (COF) and marked the birth of the field. Since then, COFs have quickly attracted attention by demonstrating how supramolecular chemistry and reticular design can be used to construct crystalline and porous organic frameworks with predictable molecularly defined pore sizes. More than two decades after its discovery, COF-1 remains one of the most studied COFs and has served as the gold standard for developing new methodologies and advances in COF crystallization. Yet, despite this extensive work, its precise crystal structure and the relationship between synthetic conditions and framework crystallinity remain debated and elusive. In this minireview, we revisit the story of COF-1, its evolution, and the open questions surrounding its structure, synthesis, stability and function.
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BibTeX
@misc{bansal2026twenty,
title = {{Twenty Years of COF-1: The Spark That Launched a Field and Its Mysteries That Remain}},
author = {Riddhi Bansal and Samuel A. Levesque and Md. Zuwel Rana and Ehsan Hamzehpoor},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15009756/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009756/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Twenty Years of COF-1: The Spark That Launched a Field and Its Mysteries That Remain
AU - Riddhi Bansal
AU - Samuel A. Levesque
AU - Md. Zuwel Rana
AU - Ehsan Hamzehpoor
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15009756/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009756/v1
AB - COF-1, reported in 2005, was the first covalent organic framework (COF) and marked the birth of the field. Since then, COFs have quickly attracted attention by demonstrating how supramolecular chemistry and reticular design can be used to construct crystalline and porous organic frameworks with predictable molecularly defined pore sizes. More than two decades after its discovery, COF-1 remains one of the most studied COFs and has served as the gold standard for developing new methodologies and advances in COF crystallization. Yet, despite this extensive work, its precise crystal structure and the relationship between synthetic conditions and framework crystallinity remain debated and elusive. In this minireview, we revisit the story of COF-1, its evolution, and the open questions surrounding its structure, synthesis, stability and function.
ER -