Engineering spin-dependent catalysts: chiral covalent organic frameworks with tunable electroactivity for electrochemical oxygen evolution

The chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect offers promising prospects for spintronics, yet designing chiral materials enabling efficient spin-polarized electron transport remains challenging. Here, we report the utility of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) in manipulating electron spin for spin-dependent catalysis via CISS. This facilitates us to design and synthesize three three-dimensional chiral COFs (CCOFs) with tunable electroactivity and spin-electron conductivity through imine condensations of enantiopure 1,1'-binaphthol-derived tetraaldehyde and tetraamines derived from 1,4-benzenediamine, pyrene, or tetrathiafulvalene skeletons. The CISS effect of CCOFs is verified by magnetic conductive atomic force microscopy. Compared with their achiral analogs, these CCOFs serve as efficient spin filters, reducing the overpotential of oxygen evolution and improving the Tafel slope. Particularly, the diarylamine-based CCOF showed a low overpotential of 430 mV (vs RHE) at 10 mA cm−2 with long-term stability comparable to the commercial RuO2. This enhanced spin-dependent OER activity stems from its excellent redox-activity, good electron conductivity and effective suppressed formation of H2O2 byproducts.