Carboxyl-functionalized covalent organic frameworks for the efficient adsorption of foodborne heterocyclic aromatic amines

•A carboxyl-functionalized COF was designed and synthesized.•This material outperformed the contrast COF by an order of magnitude.•This material showed a maximum HAAs adsorption capacity of 1.8–155.8 mg/g.•This material showed good reusability and anti-interference ability.•Mechanism of HAAs adsorption was revealed by noncovalent interaction analysis.