Recent advances of covalent organic frameworks and their application in sample preparation of biological analysis

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are crystalline porous organic polymers constructed with molecular building units via diverse linkage chemistries. Recently, COF materials have shown great potential in sample preparation science due to their tunable properties, large surface area, and unique structural robustness. Here, a comprehensive overview is provided, consisting of a brief introduction on synthetic strategies of COFs for sample preparation and the progress in the application of COF materials as promising sorbents. Then, recent advancements of COFs in biological analysis including peptidomics and proteomics analysis, nucleic acids and endogenous substances analysis, enantiomers and pharmaceutical analysis are summarized and highlighted. Finally, the current challenges and future trends of COFs with respect to their preparation and applications in biological field are tentatively discussed. •Synthetic strategies of COFs for sample preparation are briefly described.•The applications of novel functionalized COFs as materials in biological analysis were summarized.•The current challenges and future directions of COFs in biological analysis are put forward.