Recent advances in the construction of functionalized covalent organic frameworks and their applications to sensing

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), as an emerging class of porous crystalline polymers, are built by the combination of the light elements through the strong covalent bonds. In the past decade, COFs have been reported to show plenty of unique properties (such as ordered channels, large specific surface area, highly tunable porosity, optional building blocks, predictable and stable structure, and abundant functional groups), and have been widely applied in multiple fields. Recently, to further improve the potential performances of COFs and extend their applicability, a number of COFs with various functionalities have been successfully developed through the functionalization modification. In this review, we summarized the advanced design and construction of functionalized COFs, including COFs with post-synthetic modification, COFs-based composites (e.g. COFs-metal nanoparticles composites, COFs-metal oxide nanoparticles composites, COFs-MOFs composites, and COFs-enzyme composites), and molecularly imprinted COFs. Impressively, the applications of functionalized COFs to sensing also have been comprehensively summarized, including colorimetric sensing, fluorescent sensing, electrochemical sensing, and other sensing (such as quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensing, photoelectrochemical sensing, and humidity sensing). In the end, future opportunities and challenges in this promising field are tentatively proposed. The construction of functionalized covalent organic frameworks and their applications to sensing. [Display omitted] •Progress in the design construction of functionalized COFs was reviewed.•The applications of functionalized COFs to sensing were summarized.•The challenges and opportunities of functionalized COFs are put forward.