Crystalline fibres of a covalent organic framework through bottom-up microfluidic synthesisElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional experimental data. See DOI: 10.1039/c6cc04013f

A microfluidic chip has been used to prepare fibres of a porous polymer with high structural order, setting a precedent for the generation of a wide variety of materials using this reagent mixing approach that provides unique materials not accessible easily through bulk processes. The reaction between 1,3,5-tris(4-aminophenyl)benzene and 1,3,5-benzenetricarbaldehyde in acetic acid under continuous microfluidic flow conditions leads to the formation of a highly crystalline and porous covalent organic framework (hereafter denoted as MF-COF-1 ), consisting of fibrillar micro-structures, which have mechanical stability that allows for direct drawing of objects on a surface. This work describes the formation of high quality fibres of a covalent organic framework (COF) under microfluidic conditions.