Green and Scalable Synthesis of Atomic-Thin Crystalline Two-Dimensional Triazine Polymers with Ultrahigh Photocatalytic Properties

Scalable and eco-friendly synthesis of crystalline two-dimensional (2D) polymers with proper band gap and single-layer thickness is highly desired for the fundamental research and practical applications of 2D polymers; however, it remains a considerable and unresolved challenge. Herein, we report a convenient and robust method to synthesize a series of crystalline covalent triazine framework nanosheets (CTF NSs) with a thickness of ∼80 nm via a new solvent-free salt-catalyzed nitrile cyclotrimerization process, which enables the cost-effective large-scale preparation of crystalline CTF NSs at the hundred-gram level. Theoretical calculations and detailed experiments revealed for the first time that the conventional salts such as KCl can not only act as physical templates as traditionally believed but also more importantly can efficiently catalyze the cyclotrimerization reaction of carbonitrile monomers as a new kind of green solid catalysts to achieve crystalline CTF NSs. Upon simple liquid-phase sonication, these CTF NSs can be easily further exfoliated into abundant single-layer crystalline 2D triazine polymers (2D-TPs) in high yields. The obtained atomically thin crystalline 2D-TPs with a band gap of 2.36 eV and rich triazine active groups exhibited a remarkable photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of 1321 μmol h-1 under visible light irradiation with an apparent quantum yield up to 29.5% at 420 nm and excellent photocatalytic overall water splitting activity with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency up to 0.35%, which exceed all molecular framework materials and are among the best metal-free photocatalysts ever reported. Moreover, the processable 2D-TPs could be readily assembled on a support as a photocatalytic film device, which demonstrated superior photocatalytic performance (135.2 mmol h-1 m-2 for hydrogen evolution).