• • TPA-CTF and TBPA-CTF exhibit superior photocatalytic activity compared to TFPB-CTF, with enhanced performance in both H2O2 generation and aerobic oxidation of organic substrates, attributed to D-A and D-π-A architectures.
• • The built-in triazine rings serve as strong electron acceptors, while triphenylamine moieties act as strong electron donors, facilitating efficient charge separation and transfer.
• • Theoretical studies confirm that the D-A or D-π-A features are responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic performance, providing a design principle for constructing effective CTF-based photocatalysts.
• • The work demonstrates a reliable strategy: selecting reactants with electron donor moieties to construct CTFs, which can be extended to other photocatalytic oxidation reactions.