Development of covalent organic polymer as a photocatalyst

Abstract

The conjugated ene-yne based on covalent organic polymers (COPs) have been taken great attention in the research field to rectify environmental issues. Herein we have synthesized a peptide functionalized diacetylene based compound. The compound which we have synthesized in this project undergoes self-assemblies to form organogel and also undergoes topochemical photopolymerization upon UV light irradiation forming a one-dimensional conjugated ene-yne based nanofibers like covalent organic polymer (COP) nanostructures, which shows substantial recyclable photocatalytic activity for the disintegration of dye. Upon UV light treatment, 89% of the rhodamine b dye disintegration was observed in the presence of COP as a photocatalyst after 120 minutes. The covalent organic polymer was found to be highly stable, and there was no significant weight loss observed after several photocatalytic reactions. The stability of the photocatalyst was explained from the FT-IR spectrum. These stable and cheap polymer nanofibers are easy to synthesize and can be reused without any noticeable loss of activity.