Covalent Organic Polymers Beyond the Shadows: Synthetic Strategies, Functional Attributes, and Emerging Applications.

Covalent Organic Polymers (COPs) garnered significant attention as a versatile category of porous materials due to their modular design, structural versatility, and environmental benignity. Recently, numerous reports have demonstrated that structural modifications of COPs dictate their material properties. In this context, our review highlights the evolution of COP design through a classification based on interactions between core monomers and linkers, particularly emphasising the selection of the right building blocks that decide the morphology, stability, and application-specific performance. Furthermore, this review points out structural features of COPs, including π-conjugation, a rigid backbone, and a heteroatom-rich backbone, and correlates them with characteristic properties, such as conductivity, porosity, and affinity towards Lewis acid-type molecules. In addition, the significance of post-synthetic modification is highlighted, as it is a crucial method for refining porosity, tuning active sites and metal species, and enhancing the overall stability and performance of COPs. The review further discusses the key strategies involved in the synthesis, design, and functional adaptations that have shaped the development of COPs. The rapid progress has created opportunities to develop more advanced methods for pollutant removal, chemical separation, gas conversion, and energy transformation.