Photocatalytic Degradation of Emerging Pollutants Using Covalent Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Emerging contaminants (ECs), such as pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and endocrine disruptors, pose persistent threats to human and ecological health due to their refractory nature. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are attractive crystalline porous materials for photocatalytic environmental remediation. Their high surface area, tunable structures, and stability complement the sustainable and efficient nature of photocatalysis, demonstrating great potential for treating ECs. This review systematically summarizes COF-based photocatalysts for ECs degradation, highlighting the synergistic mechanisms and performance breakthroughs of hybrid systems in enhancing efficiency, spectral response, and stability. It reveals its unique advantages over traditional photocatalysts in the selective degradation of complex pollutant molecules. This study aims to comprehensively evaluate COF-based photocatalytic systems for ECs degradation and proposes that integrating theoretical calculation, machine learning, and the rational design, and synthesis of COFs will be a key future direction for developing multifunctional catalytic systems and constructing intelligent photocatalytic systems. With further advancement, COF-based photocatalytic technology is expected to achieve large-scale application in fields, such as advanced treatment of industrial wastewater, micropollutant purification of drinking water, and environmental remediation, providing a green and efficient solution for global ECs management.