In Situ Generation and Stabilization of Accessible Cu/Cu₂ O Heterojunctions inside Organic Frameworks for Highly...

Heterostructural metal/metal oxides are the very promising substituents of noble-metal catalysts; however, generation and further stabilization of accessible metal/metal oxide heterojunctions are very difficult. A strategy to encapsulate and stabilize Cu/Cu₂ O nanojunctions in porous organic frameworks in situ is developed by tuning the acrylate contents in copper-based metal-organic frameworks (Cu-MOFs) and the pyrolytic conditions. The acrylate groups play important roles on improving the polymerization degree of organic frameworks and generating and stabilizing highly dispersed and accessible Cu/Cu₂ O heteronanojunctions. As a result, pyrolysis of the MOF ZJU-199, consisting of three acrylates per ligand, generates abundant heterostructural Cu/Cu₂ O discrete domains inside porous organic matrices at 350 °C, demonstrating excellent catalytic properties in liquid-phase hydrogenation of furfural into furfuryl alcohol, which are much superior to the non-noble metal-based catalysts.