Friedel–Crafts Alkylation of Indoles with Nitroalkenes through Hydrogen‐Bond‐Donating Metal–Organic Framework

Abstract

Abstract Urea‐derived hydrogen‐bond‐donating (HBD) catalysts are good catalysts for organic transformations. Usually, urea derivatives undergo self‐recognition and aggregation during homogeneous catalytic processes. To avoid this, a new approach involving the incorporation of urea moieties into metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) was recently developed. Herein, we synthesized a new porous, zinc‐based MOF by using ureylenic acid that acts as a hydrogen‐bond‐donating catalyst. According to our knowledge, the pores of this MOF are larger than those of other reported HBD‐derived MOFs and, as such, can accommodate large substrates that typically cannot access the pores of other HBD‐based MOFs for the Friedel–Crafts reaction.