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Single-atom catalysts effectively integrate the respective advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and are a pioneering research frontier in catalysis by virtue of their maximized utility of metal atoms and distinct atomic configuration. However, development of such catalysts is still in the early stages. Herein, atomically dispersed vanadium (V) sites that are coordinated by N atoms and inlaid within N-incorporated porous carbon networks were prepared through a top-down strategy by annealing a V-containing metal−organic framework, NH 2 -MIL-101(V), followed by acid etching. The resulting V−N− C-600 catalyst exhibits unexpected catalytic reactivity, selectivity, and robust stability for the direct aerobic oxidation of benzylamine to generate N-benzylidene benzylamine with molecular oxygen under mild conditions. The turnover frequency reaches 53.9 h −1 , which is much superior to those achieved over the commercial V 2 O 5 and state-of-the-art non-noble metal heterogeneous catalysts reported in the literature. Kinetic analysis reveals a low activation energy barrier (37 kJ mol −1 ) for the benzylamine oxidation and indicates that a carbocationic intermediate is involved in the reaction mechanism. The synergistic effect between the isolated V single-atomic sites and N-doped hierarchically porous carbon network boosts the performance of V−N−C-600. Moreover, V−N−C-600 exhibits a wide generality for the efficient synthesis of a set of symmetrical imines, unsymmetrical imines, and imine derivatives.

The synthesis of heterogeneous cooperative catalysts in which two or more catalytically active components are spatially separated within a single material has generated considerable research efforts. The multiple functionalities of catalysts can significantly improve the efficiency of existing organic chemical transformations. Herein, we introduce ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles (NPs) on the surfaces of a metal–organic framework pre-encapsulated with polyoxometalate silicotungstic acid (SiW) UiO−66 (University of Oslo [UiO]) and prepared a 2.0% Ru/11.7% SiW@UiO−66 porous hybrid using the impregnation method. The close synergistic effect of metal Ru NPs, SiW, and UiO-66 endow 2.0% Ru/11.7% SiW@UiO-66 with increased activity and stability for complete methyl levulinate (ML) conversion and exclusive γ-valerolactone (GVL) selectivity at mild conditions of 80°C and at a H2 pressure of 0.5 MPa. Effectively, this serves as a model reaction for the upgrading of biomass and outperforms the performances of the constituent parts and that of the physical mixture (SiW + Ru/UiO−66). The highly dispersed Ru NPs act as active centers for hydrogenation, while the SiW molecules possess Brønsted acidic sites that cooperatively promote the subsequent lactonization of MHV to generate GVL, and the UiO−66 crystal accelerates the mass transportation facilitated by its own porous structure with a large surface area.

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