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The heterogenization of molecular catalysts within a porous solid acting as macroligand can advantageously open access to enhanced stability and productivity, and thus to more sustainable catalytic process. Herein, a porous organic polymer (POP) made through metal‐free polymerization using bipyridine repeating units is reported. This N‐rich POP is an efficient macroligand for the heterogenization of molecular rhodium complexes. The intrinsic catalytic activity of the heterogenized catalyst is slightly higher than that of its homogeneous molecular counterpart for formic acid production as a unique carbon‐containing product. The heterogenization of the rhodium catalysts enables recycling for a total productivity of up to 8.3 g of formic acid per gram of catalyst after 7 reuses using visible light as the sole energy source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to molecularly engineer materials is a powerful tool toward increasingly performing heterogeneous catalysts. Porous organic polymers stand out as photocatalysts due to their high chemical stability, outstanding optoelectronic properties and their easy and tunable syntheses. In photocatalysis, the insertion of photosensitizing π‐extended molecules into molecularly well‐defined donor‐acceptor junctions is supposed to increase the catalytic activity, but yet remain experimentally underdeveloped. This study presents a pyrene‐based Covalent Triazine Framework (CTF) synthesized through a polycondensation approach, which was designed to contain a molecularly‐defined pyrene‐triazine‐bipyridine donor‐acceptor‐acceptor triad as the repetition unit of the CTF. The CTF is an efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution from water reaching a significant production rate of 61.5 mmolH2/h/gcat. Moreover, the same CTF can easily be used as porous macroligand for an organometallic Rh complex to efficiently catalyze the carbon dioxide photoreduction into formic acid under visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molecular‐level structuration of two full photosystems into conjugated porous organic polymers is reported. The strategy of heterogenization gives rise to photosystems which are still fully active after 4 days of continuous illumination. Those materials catalyze the carbon dioxide photoreduction driven by visible light to produce up to three grams of formate per gram of catalyst. The covalent tethering of the two active sites into a single framework is shown to play a key role in the visible light activation of the catalyst. The unprecedented long‐term efficiency arises from an optimal photoinduced electron transfer from the light harvesting moiety to the catalytic site as anticipated by quantum mechanical calculations and evidenced by in situ ultrafast time‐resolved spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their Research Article, R. Palkovits, J. Canivet, F. M. Wisser and co-workers demonstrate the crucial role of molecularly defined donor-acceptor-acceptor triad in CTF photocatalysts to enable efficient solar fuel production. Condensation, covalent triazine framework, molecular control, photocatalysis, pyrene Keywords: condensation; covalent triazine framework; molecular control; photocatalysis; pyrene EN condensation covalent triazine framework molecular control photocatalysis pyrene 1 1 1 07/25/23 20230721 NES 230721 B The Front Cover b illustrates a pyrene- and bipyridine-based covalent triazine framework (CTF) as versatile photocatalyst for the production of different renewable energy vectors. [Extracted from the article]

The first photosensitization of a rhodium-based catalytic system for CO2 reduction is reported, with formate as the sole carbon-containing product. Formate has wide industrial applications and is seen as valuable within fuel cell technologies as well as an interesting H2-storage compound. Heterogenization of molecular rhodium catalysts is accomplished via the synthesis, post-synthetic linker exchange, and characterization of a new metal-organic framework (MOF) Cp*Rh@UiO-67. While the catalytic activities of the homogeneous and heterogeneous systems are found to be comparable, the MOF-based system is more stable and selective. Furthermore it can be recycled without loss of activity. For formate production, an optimal catalyst loading of ~10% molar Rh incorporation is determined. Increased incorporation of rhodium catalyst favors thermal decomposition of formate into H2. There is no precedent for a MOF catalyzing the latter reaction so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]