Metal-organic framework-derived nanomaterials: Promising green catalysts for industrially relevant oxidation and hydrogenation

Abstract

Catalytic oxidation and hydrogenation reactions are fundamental and significant processes in the modern-day chemical industry, necessary for the manufacture of key chemicals and intermediates. The need to develop efficient and practical catalysts is a key aspect of heterogeneous catalysis, based on insights from fundamental research and industrial application. Recently, newly emerging metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) derived nanomaterials have attracted increased attention and shown to be promising prospects regarding oxidation and hydrogenation catalysis due to their uniform active sites, hierarchical porosity, composition diversity, easy functionalization with other heteroatoms and high stability. This review summarizes the recent research on MOF-derived nanomaterials as catalysts for industrially relevant oxidation and hydrogenation, including the synthesis parameters, chemical composition, morphologies, and structures of the MOF-derived catalysts as well as their catalytic performance. Emphasis is also given to the influence of the pore structure, size of the active nanoparticles (NPs) and heteroatom doping on the reactant conversion and product selectivity under green and mild reaction conditions, thereby providing guidance for the rational design and synthesis of advanced MOF-derived catalysts suitable for green catalysis. Finally, we concisely discuss some of the scientific challenges and provide a brief outlook on the future development of MOF-derived catalysts for industrially green catalysis.