Earth-abundant metal catalysts are critically needed for sustainable chemical synthesis. Here we report a simple, cheap and effective strategy of producing novel earth-abundant metal catalysts at metal–organic framework (MOF) nodes for broad-scope organic transformations. The straightforward metalation of MOF secondary building units (SBUs) with cobalt and iron salts affords highly active and reusable single-site solid catalysts for a range of organic reactions, including chemoselective borylation, silylation and amination of benzylic C–H bonds, as well as hydrogenation and hydroboration of alkenes and ketones. Our structural, spectroscopic and kinetic studies suggest that chemoselective organic transformations occur on site-isolated, electron-deficient and coordinatively unsaturated metal centres at the SBUs via σ-bond metathesis pathways and as a result of the steric environment around the catalytic site. MOFs thus provide a novel platform for the development of highly active and affordable base metal catalysts for the sustainable synthesis of fine chemicals.

We report here the synthesis of a robust and porous metal-organic framework (MOF), Zr-TPDC, constructed from triphenyldicarboxylic acid (HTPDC) and an unprecedented Zr secondary building unit (SBU): Zr(μ-O)(μ-OH)(μ-OH). The Zr-SBU can be viewed as an inorganic node dimerized from two commonly observed Zr clusters via six μ-OH groups. The metalation of Zr-TPDC SBUs with CoCl followed by treatment with NaBEtH afforded a highly active and reusable solid Zr-TPDC-Co catalyst for the hydrogenation of nitroarenes, nitriles, and isocyanides to corresponding amines with excellent activity and selectivity. This work highlights the opportunity in designing novel MOF-supported single-site solid catalysts by tuning the electronic and steric properties of the SBUs.

We have designed highly stable and recyclable single-site solid catalysts via postsynthetic metalation of the 2,2'-bipyridyl-derived metal-organic framework (MOF) of the UiO structure (bpy-UiO). The Ir-functionalized MOF (bpy-UiO-Ir) is a highly active catalyst for both borylation of aromatic C-H bonds using B2(pin)2 (pin = pinacolate) and ortho-silylation of benzylicsilyl ethers; the ortho-silylation activity of the bpy-UiO-Ir is at least 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of the homogeneous control. The Pd-functionalized MOF (bpy-UiO-Pd) catalyzes the dehydrogenation of substituted cyclohexenones to afford phenol derivatives with oxygen as the oxidant. Most impressively, the bpy-UiO-Ir was recycled and reused 20 times for the borylation reaction without loss of catalytic activity or MOF crystallinity. This work highlights the opportunity in designing highly stable and active catalysts based on MOFs containing nitrogen donor ligands for important organic transformations.

We report here the synthesis of a series of robust and porous bipyridyl- and phenanthryl-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) of UiO topology (BPV-MOF, mBPV-MOF, and mPT-MOF) and their postsynthetic metalation to afford highly active single-site solid catalysts. While BPV-MOF was constructed from only bipyridyl-functionalized dicarboxylate linker, both mBPV- and mPT-MOF were built with a mixture of bipyridyl- or phenanthryl-functionalized and unfunctionalized dicarboxylate linkers. The postsynthetic metalation of these MOFs with [Ir(COD)(OMe)]2 provided Ir-functionalized MOFs (BPV-MOF-Ir, mBPV-MOF-Ir, and mPT-MOF-Ir), which are highly active catalysts for tandem hydrosilylation of aryl ketones and aldehydes followed by dehydrogenative ortho-silylation of benzylicsilyl ethers as well as C-H borylation of arenes using B2pin2. Both mBPV-MOF-Ir and mPT-MOF-Ir catalysts displayed superior activities compared to BPV-MOF-Ir due to the presence of larger open channels in the mixed-linker MOFs. Impressively, mBPV-MOF-Ir exhibited high TONs of up to 17,000 for C-H borylation reactions and was recycled more than 15 times. The mPT-MOF-Ir system is also active in catalyzing tandem dehydrosilylation/dehydrogenative cyclization of N-methylbenzyl amines to azasilolanes in the absence of a hydrogen acceptor. Importantly, MOF-Ir catalysts are significantly more active (up to 95 times) and stable than their homogeneous counterparts for all three reactions, strongly supporting the beneficial effects of active site isolation within MOFs. This work illustrates the ability to increase MOF open channel sizes by using the mixed linker approach and shows the enormous potential of developing highly active and robust single-site solid catalysts based on MOFs containing nitrogen-donor ligands for important organic transformations.

New and active earth-abundant metal catalysts are critically needed to replace precious metal-based catalysts for sustainable production of commodity and fine chemicals. We report here the design of highly robust, active, and reusable cobalt-bipyridine- and cobalt-phenanthroline-based metal-organic framework (MOF) catalysts for alkene hydrogenation and hydroboration, aldehyde/ketone hydroboration, and arene C-H borylation. In alkene hydrogenation, the MOF catalysts tolerated a variety of functional groups and displayed unprecedentedly high turnover numbers of ∼2.5 × 10(6) and turnover frequencies of ∼1.1 × 10(5) h(-1). Structural, computational, and spectroscopic studies show that site isolation of the highly reactive (bpy)Co(THF)2 species in the MOFs prevents intermolecular deactivation and stabilizes solution-inaccessible catalysts for broad-scope organic transformations. Computational, spectroscopic, and kinetic evidence further support a hitherto unknown (bpy(•-))Co(I)(THF)2 ground state that coordinates to alkene and dihydrogen and then undergoing σ-complex-assisted metathesis to form (bpy)Co(alkyl)(H). Reductive elimination of alkane followed by alkene binding completes the catalytic cycle. MOFs thus provide a novel platform for discovering new base-metal molecular catalysts and exhibit enormous potential in sustainable chemical catalysis.

Here we present the first example of a single-site main group catalyst stabilized by a metal-organic framework (MOF) for organic transformations. The straightforward metalation of the secondary building units of a Zr-MOF with Me2Mg affords a highly active and reusable solid catalyst for hydroboration of carbonyls and imines and for hydroamination of aminopentenes. Impressively, the Mg-functionalized MOF displayed very high turnover numbers of up to 8.4 × 10(4) for ketone hydroboration and could be reused more than 10 times. MOFs can thus be used to develop novel main group solid catalysts for sustainable chemical synthesis.

We report here the synthesis of robust and porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), M-MTBC (M = Zr or Hf), constructed from the tetrahedral linker methane-tetrakis(p-biphenylcarboxylate) (MTBC) and two types of secondary building units (SBUs): cubic M8(μ2-O)8(μ2-OH)4 and octahedral M6(μ3-O)4(μ3-OH)4. While the M6-SBU is isostructural with the 12-connected octahedral SBUs of UiO-type MOFs, the M8-SBU is composed of eight M(IV) ions in a cubic fashion linked by eight μ2-oxo and four μ2-OH groups. The metalation of Zr-MTBC SBUs with CoCl2, followed by treatment with NaBEt3H, afforded highly active and reusable solid Zr-MTBC-CoH catalysts for the hydrogenation of alkenes, imines, carbonyls, and heterocycles. Zr-MTBC-CoH was impressively tolerant of a range of functional groups and displayed high activity in the hydrogenation of tri- and tetra-substituted alkenes with TON > 8000 for the hydrogenation of 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene. Our structural and spectroscopic studies show that site isolation of and open environments around the cobalt-hydride catalytic species at Zr8-SBUs are responsible for high catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of a wide range of challenging substrates. MOFs thus provide a novel platform for discovering and studying new single-site base-metal solid catalysts with enormous potential for sustainable chemical synthesis.

A robust and porous Zr metal-organic framework, sal-MOF, of UiO topology was synthesized using a salicylaldimine (sal)-derived dicarboxylate bridging ligand. Postsynthetic metalation of sal-MOF with iron(II) or cobalt(II) chloride followed by treatment with NaBEt3H in THF resulted in Fe- and Co-functionalized MOFs (sal-M-MOF, M = Fe, Co) which are highly active solid catalysts for alkene hydrogenation. Impressively, sal-Fe-MOF displayed very high turnover numbers of up to 145000 and was recycled and reused more than 15 times. This work highlights the unique opportunity of developing MOF-based earth-abundant catalysts for sustainable chemical synthesis.