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Updated: Jan 5, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks MOFs
Published on: January 17, 2020
Metal-Organic Framework-Derived Guerbet Catalyst Effectively Differentiates between Ethanol and Butanol
Constanze N Neumann1, Steven J Rozeveld2, Mingzhe Yu2
1Department of Chemistry , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue , Cambridge , Massachusetts 02139 , United States.
Abstract:
RuNi nanoparticles supported on a metal-organic framework (RuNi@MOF) and formed in situ from a ruthenium complex enclosed inside a nickel-based MOF act as a highly active catalyst for the Guerbet reaction of ethanol to 1-butanol, providing turnover numbers up to 725 000 Ru-1. Negligible activity of the RuNi@MOF ethanol upgrading catalyst system toward chemically similar 1-butanol makes it possible to synthesize the competent Guerbet substrate 1-butanol with >99% selectivity.
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