Tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane can be used as a synthetic material intermediate. It can also be used to synthesize the structurally similar COF-320, which differs from COF-300 by the length of the linear dialdehyde linker, employing 4-4’-biphenyldicarboxyaldehyde instead of terephthalaldehyde. Lastly, a tetrahedral aldehyde monomer, tetrakis(4-formylphenyl)methane, is synthesized and used alongside tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane to explore the synthesis of a novel tetraaminetetraaldehyde COF.
synthesis of Tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane: Tetrakis-(4-nitrophenyl)methane (1.5 g, 3 mmol) was dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (100 ml), and Raney nickel (10 g) was added to the solution while stirring under nitrogen. Hydrazine monohydrate (2 g, 0.04 mol) was slowly added via syringe, and the mixture was refluxed for 4 h. The mixture was filtered while hot and washed with ethanol. The filtrate was dried in vacuo. The crude product was subsequently washed with ethanol (50 ml) and dried in vacuo to afford Tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane as a white solid (0.92 g, 81% yield).