A hollow microshuttle-shaped capsule covalent organic framework for protein adsorptionElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c8tb02870b

• Main Authors: Lu, Zhixiang, Liu, Yanxiong, Liu, Xiaolan, Lu, Shuhan, Li, Yuan, Yang, Shaoxiong, Qin, Yu, Zheng, Liyan, Zhang, Hongbin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2050-750X; 2050-7518
• DOI: 10.1039/c8tb02870b

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of crystalline porous materials utilized in various potential applications. However, the development of hollow-structured COFs with defined morphology is important for their further applications, which is rare. Herein, COF with unique hollow shuttle morphology was prepared by a Schiff condensation reaction between 4-(4-aldehyde phenyl)ethylene (TPE) and tetra-(4-aminophenyl) porphyrin (TAP). A detailed mechanistic investigation reveals that an initial self-assembly followed by a similar inside-out Ostwald ripening process is responsible for the hollow capsule formation. The hollow microshuttle-shaped capsule COF is used for studying hemoglobin adsorption, which shows an uptake of 550.82 mg g −1 of hemoglobin. These studies could foreshadow new avenues for the development of porous materials with defined morphologies for the adsorption of biomolecules. A hollow microshuttle-shaped capsule COF was prepared using a template-free procedure for the first time and has demonstrated the highest adsorption capacity (550.82 mg g −1 ) for hemoglobin so far.