Since their discovery, MOF materials have exponentially gained in interest for various applications, such as selective gas adsorption and separation, gas storage, sensing, drug delivery or catalysis. The infinite variations of the nature of the organic linkers added to the possibility of using di-, tri- (including rare earth) or tetravalent cations, lead to near-limitless possibilities for networks. Additionally, the possibility of tuning the pore size, the presence of accessible coordinatively unsaturated metal sites (CUS), the functionalizations of the organic linkers (using functionalized ligands during the synthesis or post-synthetic modification (PSM) of the linker) and the easy, inexpensive synthesis of many of the MOFs make this new class of materials suitable for different applications, especially in catalysis.<br/>Stringent environmental problems as well as concerns about raw materials and energy supplies steer us to apply the concepts of green chemistry and sustainable development in industrial production and resource management. Therefore, efficient catalytic reactions must be applied at the largest scale to produce goods with atom economy, at the lowest energetic cost, reducing at the same time the impact of by-products and pollutants on the environment. In such a contest MOF can play a unique role: being highly tailorable materials, they can be designed to operate in precise reaction conditions to maximize the yield of a given product at the minimum cost. Their high site concentration and the flexibility of the hosting structure make such materials analogous of the organometallic compounds, but being solid and resistant to medium/high temperatures and aggressive conditions.<br/>In this talk, several examples will be provided on the use of tailored MOFs for heterogeneous catalysis applications, notably in the fields of fine chemical production and pollutant abatement.

MOFs as highly selective catalytic materials

250th National Meeting (2015)

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