Nature Water, Published online: 09 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00685-y Enhancing charge separation and directing photogenerated electrons to active sites remain key challenges in photocatalytic uranium extraction. Localized potential well engineering in bipyridine-containing covalent organic frameworks enables directional electron transport, achieving a uranium extraction capacity of 8.9 mg g−1 from real seawater.