MOFs have been initially used as solid catalysts due to the presence of single or multiple well-defined catalytically active sites monodispersed and accessible along the highly porous system. Lately, MOFs have also demonstrated to be versatile precursors for the preparation of catalytically active materials upon applying certain conditions, such as controlled pyrolysis under nitrogen, calcination under oxygen or reduction under hydrogen. The versatility of MOFs as precursors is mainly due to their unique and highly tunable features, which can play two simultaneous roles acting as template and precursor. Upon transformation, MOFs can lead to well-defined nanostructured catalytically active species, which are monodispersed within hierarchical scaffolds, depending on the conversion conditions, i.e., microporous carbonaceous matrix under inert conditions. RTI International has recently developed an elegant, green, large-scale and efficient approach to selectively confine MOF nanocrystals within mesoporous materials via novel solid-state synthesis, which allows the preparation of hybrid materials containing a high loading (up to 40 wt.%) of the smallest nanocrystals yet reported for any MOF structure within a wide collection of mesoporous supports, also named HyperMOFs [1]. This versatile approach provides high level of design over the composition, loading and dispersion of the MOF guest as well as composition, pore size distribution and particle size of the mesoporous material host. These hybrid materials show improved features from the combination of a mesoporous scaffold both protecting and supporting the MOF nanocrystals within its porous network. Some of these improved features include improved attrition resistance, excellent fluidizability and handling, as well as enhanced catalytic activity. Here we report two illustrative examples of the use of HyperMOFs as platform for the precise design of well-dispersed nanostructured catalysts for two novel catalytic applications. First, the synthesis of steroids catalyzed by HyperMOFs exhibits enhanced catalytic performance compared to their bulk counterparts [2]. And second, a pioneer concept of Fluidized-Nanoreactor Hydrogen Carriers has been first time proposed, which is based on nanostructured catalysts within fluidized mesoporous silica prepared by using HyperMOFs as precursor.

MOF nanocrystals confined within mesoporous materials (HyperMOFs) as novel platform for developing well-defined nanostructured catalysts

256th National Meeting (2018)

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