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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs
Published on: January 17, 2020
Stable, crystalline, porous, covalent organic frameworks as a platform for chiral organocatalysts
Hong Xu1, Jia Gao1, Donglin Jiang1
1Department of Materials Molecular Science, Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 5-1 Higashiyama, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan.
Abstract:
The periodic layers and ordered nanochannels of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) make these materials viable open catalytic nanoreactors, but their low stability has precluded their practical implementation. Here we report the synthesis of a crystalline porous COF that is stable against water, strong acids and strong bases, and we demonstrate its utility as a material platform for structural design and functional development. We endowed a crystalline and porous imine-based COF with stability by incorporating methoxy groups into its pore walls to reinforce interlayer interactions. We subsequently converted the resulting achiral material into two distinct chiral organocatalysts, with the high crystallinity and porosity retained, by appending chiral centres and catalytically active sites on its channel walls. The COFs thus prepared combine catalytic activity, enantioselectivity and recyclability, which are attractive in heterogeneous organocatalysis, and were shown to promote asymmetric C-C bond formation in water under ambient conditions.
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