Facile synthesis of magnetic macroporous polymer/MOF composites as separable catalysts

Abstract

Design and synthesis of magnetic macroporous metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been of significant interest, in order to improve the catalytic efficiency and reusability. In this work, we prepared magnetic macroporous MOF composites based on as-prepared magnetic macroporous polyacrylamides (MMPam). Different MOFs with or without unsaturated coordinative metal sites, including HKUST-1, MOF-2, UiO-66, and Fe-MIL-101(-NH2) were grown on and within the MMPam matrices. The composites showed hierarchical porosity with both micro- and macropores, which facilitated substrate diffusion to increase the conversion for isomerization of α-pinene oxide from 62% in the case of pure HKUST-1 microparticles to 90% in the case of HKUST-1@MMPam. The magnetic property also endowed the composites with easy recovery and reasonable reusability.