Construction of CuII Defects on CuCl Nanoparticles in Metal-Organic Frameworks toward Composite Catalysts with Superior Activity.

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) represent an ideal platform for the construction of highly active composite catalysts. However, loading metastable and/or multicomponent metal compounds into MOFs remains a synthetic bottleneck due to the great challenge of keeping the guest and matrix intact during the preparation of a composite. In this work, we develop a new impregnation reduction surface modification (IRSM) strategy to give a new composite catalyst CuCl@MIL-101(Cr), which is successfully postmodified by in situ construction of CuII defects on the surface of loaded CuCl inside MOF pores, leading to the new composite material CuII/CuI@MIL-101(Cr). The new dual-component composite catalyst exhibits a hierarchical structure and superior catalytic activity in C-C homocoupling of arylboronic acids under green conditions. This study presents a facile strategy for improving the catalytic activity by constructing defects on the surface of MOF-based catalysts as well as for forming multiple-component composite materials.