Rational fabrication of ZIF-8 forests via metal template-guided growth for promoting CO2 chemical transformation

Abstract

Construction of macroscopic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with high processability is crucial for their practical usage. Here, we demonstrate a facile metal template-guided growth approach that exploits the synthesis of forest-like ZIF-8-based material. The 3D self-supported array architecture endows the resultant ZIF-8 forests with efficient exposure of active sites, rapid mass transfer and simple recovery. Under mild catalytic reaction conditions (1 bar CO2, 60 ℃), ZIF-8 forests show remarkable activities toward the coupling of epoxides and CO2 with an excellent cyclic carbonate yield of 96%, surpassing the powdered ZIF-8 crystals. Importantly, the catalytic performance can be well-maintained even after 10 cycles and under both simulated flue gas conditions and full-spectrum light irradiation, demonstrating the potential for practical catalysis. Our work provides a practical guideline to produce macroscopic MOF-based materials with great potential for industrial catalysis.