Research Projects

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have gained attention for their potential in organic electronics due to their ability to incorporate photoactive building blocks. Two-dimensional (2D) COFs, driven by electron-rich organic building blocks, exhibit high charge carrier mobilities, making them promising photofunctional materials. The interconnection of electron-deficient and electron-rich building units in 2D donor-acceptor COFs is beneficial for effective exciton separation and charge transports. Currently, two new donor-acceptor COFs have been explored for broad band and tunable photodetectors. The as-synthesized donor-acceptor COFs exhibit a maximum range of visible light absorption with low optical band gap values, indicating their semiconducting nature. The EPR study confirmed the semiconducting behavior through the generation of free radicals. Covalent triazine-based frameworks (CTFs) consisting of electron donor and acceptor building units can maintain the maximum range of visible light absorption and permit high degree of intramolecular charge transfer. However, broad band and tunable photodetectors based on donor-acceptor COFs/CTFs have not been explored. The research proposal focuses on developing novel donor-acceptor COF (TpTz-COF) and CTF (DA-CTF) as active components for broad band and tunable photodetector devices. The proposed DA-CTF consists of electron-donor triptycene and electron-acceptor triazine components, exhibiting semiconductor band gap with exciton separation and fast charge transport.