The
catalytic performances of two zeolite-like metal organic frameworks
(rho-ZMOF and sod-ZMOF) were examined
for the synthesis of chloropropene carbonate from CO2 and
epichlorohydrin. rho-ZMOF exhibited superior catalytic
activity compared to that of sod-ZMOF; rho-ZMOF achieved an excellent result of 98.0% conversion of epichlorohydrin
with a 98.6% selectivity to the cyclic carbonate with tetrabutylammonium
bromide as a cocatalyst after a 3 h reaction at 40 °C and 10
bar. rho-ZMOF retained good catalytic performance
for up to five recycling runs without a loss in catalytic activity,
whereas sod-ZMOF showed structural collapse during
the recycling runs, which was similar to many other reported metal
organic frameworks, such as ZIF-8. The high stability of rho-ZMOF for the liquid phase cycloaddition reaction was noteworthy
and was believed to be derived from its more robust metal–ligand
bonding in which the metal sites were coordinated by four bidentate
ligands, rather than just the two found in sod-ZMOF
with a coordination number of six.