Electric fields can be used to enhance the reactivity and selectivity of organic reactions. However, harnessing local electric fields from charged moieties for catalysis faces challenges of solubilities and structural designs. Here, different charged functional groups are selectively embedded onto mesoporous silica nanoparticles to generate heterogeneous electrostatic catalysts with different directions and magnitudes. The aldol reaction of benzaldehyde and acetone is used as the model reaction to study electrostatic catalysis. Correlations between the electrostatic effect and solvent polarity are also verified.

Electric-field-induced catalysis of an aldol reaction

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