Preface

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are crystalline porous polymers constructed from molecular building units via strong bonds with well-defined and highly ordered extended structures, which is presently one of the fast-growing research fields. Due to the diverse structures, high porosity, rich functionalities, and open channels with tunable size and environment, MOFs and COFs show great potential for applications such as gas storage and separation, catalysis, energy storage and conversion, and novel features are being explored to further extend their utilization scopes. The development of MOFs and COFs accompanies the emergence and advancement of reticular chemistry. The topic of hybrid MOF and COF polymers in this book is a key section in the 25 year progress of reticular chemistry.

Polymers are one of the most important materials. Natural biopolymers, for example proteins, are essential to biological functions, and synthetic plastics are used in almost all areas of everyday life. The production of polymeric materials is one of the major global industries. Their broad applications are highly related to their features of toughness, high resistance to corrosion, high elasticity, low cost, good processibility, etc. Despite the numerous advantages of MOFs and COFs, their structures are rather rigid showing limited flexibility and processibility, which hinders their further industrial and device applications. The flexibility of the chain segment in polymers is the main reason for their good processibility, and introducing these flexible moieties into crystalline porous frameworks would overcome the limitations of rigidity, trigger new properties, and improve processibility. Furthermore, the properties of polymers can also be modified as a result of special interactions, and one special case is that the confined channels could control the polymer synthesis as well as tune the physical properties. Therefore, the hybridization of MOFs or COFs with polymers is a powerful strategy to fabricate composites with unique traits and novel functions, with huge potential in the fields of energy, environment, and biomedicine. This topic is attractive to people both in academia and industry.

Considering the importance of the topic and the encouraging progress, we believe it is the right time to publish the first book on the hybridization of MOFs/COFs with polymers. This book is contributed by experts in this field, presenting the advances regarding the hybridization strategies to achieve the composites, characterization techniques, as well as applications. The up-to-date research findings from worldwide research groups are summarized, with a plentiful overview and valuable insights on the latest developments, covering basic science to the potential applications.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to all the authors for their vital contributions and efforts, and the book editorial team at the Royal Society of Chemistry for their critical input and support. We hope this book will be valuable and inspiring for readers as an introduction to this vast and fascinating field.

Bo Wang

Beijing Institute of Technology, China.