Porous frustrated Lewis pair catalysts: Advances and perspective

Abstract

Frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs), well known for the ability to activate small molecules via the concerted action of Lewis acid and Lewis base, have inspired an ever-widening scope of chemistry. The rapid development of this class of catalysts has promoted research into a promising direction: porous heterogeneous FLP catalysts, which possess several advantages for industrial application, such as controllable synthesis, tunable structure and composition, high surface area with abundant and accessible active sites, efficient mass transfer, and easy separation and reuse. This perspective summarizes recent progresses and provides an outlook in designing porous FLP catalysts for applications in heterogeneous catalysis. Challenges and opportunities: • Porous FLP catalysts combine the merits from both fields of molecular FLP and porous materials, while their development is still in the infancy stage. • The synergistic/cooperative effect in porous FLP catalysts will be impactful but has yet to be exploited. • Current progress in efficient transformations using porous FLP catalysts manifests their potential in advanced catalysis. Frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs), well known for the ability to activate small molecules via the concerted action of Lewis acid and Lewis base, have inspired an ever-widening scope of chemistry. The rapid development of this class of catalysts has promoted research into a promising direction: porous heterogeneous FLP catalysts, which possess several advantages for industrial application. This perspective summarizes recent progresses and provides an outlook in designing porous FLP catalysts for applications in heterogeneous catalysis.