Enhanced Catalysis Activity in a Coordinatively Unsaturated Cobalt-MOF Generated via Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Dehydration

Abstract

Hydrothermal reaction of Co(NO3)2 and terphenyl-3,2",5",3'-tetracarboxyate (H4tpta) generated Co3(OH)2 chains based 3D coordination framework Co3(OH)2(tpta)(H2O)4 (1) that suffered from single-crystal-to-single-crystal dehydration by heating at 160 °C and was transformed into dehydrated Co3(OH)2(tpta) (1a). During the dehydration course, the local coordination environment of part of the Co atoms was transformed from saturated octahedron to coordinatively unsaturated tetrahedron. Heterogenous catalytic experiments on allylic oxidation of cyclohexene show that dehydrated 1a has 6 times enhanced catalytic activity than as-synthesized 1 by using tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BuOOH) as oxidant. The activation energy for the oxidation of cylcohexene with 1a catalyst was 67.3 kJ/mol, far below the value with 1 catalysts, which clearly suggested that coordinatively unsaturated Co(II) sites in 1a have played a significant role in decreasing the activation energy. It is interestingly found that heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of cyclohexene in 1a not only gives the higher conversion of 73.6% but also shows very high selectivity toward 2-cyclohexene-1-one (ca. 64.9%), as evidenced in high turnover numbers (ca. 161) based on the open Co(II) sites of 1a catalyst. Further experiments with a radical trap indicate a radical chain mechanism. This work demonstrates that creativity of coordinatively unsaturated metal sites in MOFs could significantly enhance heterogeneous catalytic activity and selectivity.