Covalent organic framework/nanofibrillated cellulose composite membrane loaded with Pd nanoparticles for dechlorination of dichlorobenzene

Abstract Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have attracted much attention due to their high porosity and highly ordered crystalline structure. However, the insoluble and unprocessable features of bulk COF powder limit their applications. To overcome these limitations, COF-TpPa film was prepared based on amine-group functionalized nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) by Schiff base reaction for the first time. The obtained COF-TpPa/NFC membrane had high specific surface area (BET, 357 m2/g) and uniform pore size of 2–20 nm with the thickness of 250 nm. Via a simple post-treatment, a Pd-containing Pd@COF/NFC composite membrane, was accordingly synthesized, which showed excellent catalytic activity in catalyzing dechlorination of o-dichlorobenzene (o-DCB) with high activity (the apparent reaction rate was 0.0235 min−1).We expect that our approach will further boost research on designing and employing functional COF film for catalysis.