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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs
Published on: January 17, 2020
Aperture-Opening Encapsulation of a Transition Metal Catalyst in a Metal-Organic Framework for CO2 Hydrogenation
Zhehui Li1, Thomas M Rayder1, Lianshun Luo2
1Department of Chemistry , Boston College , Chestnut Hill , Massachusetts 02467 , United States.
Abstract:
The aperture-opening process resulting from dissociative linker exchange in zirconium-based metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 was used to encapsulate the ruthenium complex (tBuPNP)Ru(CO)HCl in the framework (tBuPNP = 2,6-bis((di- tert-butyl-phosphino)methyl)pyridine). The resulting encapsulated complex, [Ru]@UiO-66, was a very active catalyst for the hydrogenation of CO2 to formate. Unlike the analogous homogeneous catalyst, [Ru]@UiO-66 could be recycled five times, showed no evidence for bimolecular catalyst decomposition, and was less prone to catalyst poisoning. These results demonstrated for the first time how the aperture-opening process in MOFs can be used to synthesize host-guest materials useful for chemical catalysis.
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