Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 25, 2025
HKUST-1 as a Heterogeneous Catalyst for the Synthesis of Vanillin
Published on: July 23, 2016
Enabling alcohol as a hydrogen carrier using metal-organic framework-stabilized Ir-Sc bifunctional catalytic sites
Jing Wang1, Huichong Liu1, Jiawei Chen1
1iChem, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, P. R. China. wangchengxmu@xmu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Alcohols are attractive portable chemical carriers of hydrogen thanks to their reversible dehydrogenation, but the hydrogen release reaction is thermodynamically unfavorable. Coupling the alcohol dehydrogenation to acetal formation can shift the reaction thermodynamics for hydrogen production. Here, we stabilized Ir3+ and Sc3+ in a metal-organic framework (MOF) for tandem catalysis. The Ir3+ center bearing an α-hydroxybipyridine ligand catalyzes alcohol dehydrogenation, and the Sc3+ Lewis acid site catalyzes acetal formation that allows further dehydrogenation to form esters. The bifunctional UiO-bpyOH-IrCp-Sc catalyst effectively converts ethylene glycol to ester and H2 without producing CO.
Related Concept Videos
02:17Reduction of Alkenes: Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...
02:15Preparation of Alcohols via Addition Reactions
The acid-catalyzed addition of water to the double bond of alkenes is a large-scale industrial method used to synthesize low-molecular-weight alcohols. An acidic atmosphere is required to allow the hydrogen in the water molecule to act as an electrophile and attack the double bond in an alkene. The addition of a proton to the double bond creates a carbocation intermediate. The proton preferentially bonds to the less substituted end of the double bond to create a more stable carbocation...
02:24Reduction of Alkynes to cis-Alkenes: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Like alkenes, alkynes can be reduced to alkanes in the presence of transition metal catalysts such as Pt, Pd, or Ni. The reaction involves two sequential syn additions of hydrogen via a cis-alkene intermediate.
02:13Reduction of Alkenes: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Metals like palladium, platinum, and nickel are commonly used in their solid forms — fine powder on an inert surface. As these catalysts remain insoluble in the reaction mixture, they are referred to as heterogeneous catalysts.
The hydrogenation process takes place on the...
02:23Alcohols from Carbonyl Compounds: Reduction
Catalytic hydrogenation is similar to the reduction of an alkene or alkyne by adding H2 across the pi bond in the presence of transition metal catalysts like Raney Ni, Pd–C, Pt, or Ru. Aldehydes and ketones can be reduced by this method, often under mild to moderate heat (25–100°C) and...
03:08Hydroboration-Oxidation of Alkenes