Metal-organic frameworks as catalyst supports: influence of lattice disorder on metal nanoparticle formation

Journal article

Because of their high tunability and surface area, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show great promise as supports for metal nanoparticles. Depending on the synthesis route, MOFs may contain defects. Here, we show that highly crystalline MIL-100(Fe) and disordered Basolite® F300, with identical iron 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate composition, exhibit very divergent properties when used as a support for Pd nanoparticle deposition. While MIL-100(Fe) shows a regular MTN-zeotype crystal structure with two types of cages, Basolite® F300 lacks long-range order beyond 8 Å and has a single-pore system. The medium-range configurational linker-node disorder in Basolite® F300 results in a reduced number of Lewis acid sites, yielding more hydrophobic surface properties compared to hydrophilic MIL-100(Fe). The hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of MIL-100(Fe) and Basolite® F300 impacts the amount of Pd and particle size distribution of Pd nanoparticles deposited during colloidal synthesis and dry impregnation methods, respectively. It is suggested that polar (apolar) solvents/precursors attractively interact with hydrophilic (hydrophobic) MOF surfaces, allowing tools at hand to increase the level of control over, for example, the nanoparticle size distribution.

Authors: Rivera-Torrente, M; Filez, M; Hardian, R; Reynolds, E; Seoane, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Chemistry - A European Journal
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 29
• Pages: 7498-7506
• Publication date: 2018-04-30
• Acceptance date: 2018-03-27
• DOI: 10.1002/chem.201800694
• EISSN: 1521-3765
• ISSN: 0947-6539
• Pmid: 29709084
• Language: English
• Keywords: metal-organic frameworks (MOF); Pd nanoparticles; Basolite; lattice disorder; MIL-100 (Fe); heterogeneous catalysis