J.-X. Li, et al.
InorganicChemistryCommunications103(2019)82–86
step-by-step reactions, one-pot [17–22] reactions have obvious ad-
shorter reaction time and more environmental protection.
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) [23–26] are composed of metal
clusters or ions and organic ligands. Owing to their adjustable high pore
structure and large specific surface areas, they have extensive appli-
cation fields, such as catalysis [27–36], gas storage [37], adsorption
carrier for metal nanoparticles. Although plenty of researches have
been conducted on the role of MOFs in catalysis, the number of studies
on bifunctional metal nanoparticles@MOFs for catalyzed one pot re-
actions is limited. Although single-step reactions have been reported in
the literature, the use of bifunctional MOFs to simultaneously catalyze
the Suzuki-knoevenagel one-pot reaction has hardly been reported, so
there is no suitable catalyst to compare. It is worth mentioning that
metal nanoparticles@MOFs catalysts have many advantages than
homogeneous catalysts, such as reuse and separate. Moreover, com-
pared with nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles@MOFs catalysts have
good stability and not easy to be aggregated. Here, we developed a
bifunctional one-pot heterogeneous catalysts by encapsulating Pd na-
noparticles (NPs) into cavities of MIL-101-NH2. They can catalyze Su-
zuki cross-coupling reaction of aldehydes and subsequent Knoevenagel
condensation reaction of malononitrile. For all we know, this is the first
example of applying MOF-based heterogeneous catalysts to a one-pot
Suzuki-Knoevenagel reactions. Additionally, and they can be reused
multiple times without distinct catalytic activity.
Fig. 1. PXRD patterns of simulated (black), MIL-101-NH2 (red), Pd@MIL-101-
NH2 (blue), recovered after five runs (green). (For interpretation of the refer-
ences to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)
consistent with the XRD result. TEM images illustrated that Pd nano-
particles were adequately dispersed into MIL-101-NH2 (Fig. 2a), which
increased activity of the catalyst. It can be found in Fig. 2b that it has a
The X-ray powder diffraction measurements of samples were de-
tected by Bruker AXS D8 advanced automated diffractometer with Cu-
Kα radiation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra
were recorded with the Nicolet 5DX spectrometer in range
4000–400 cm−1 using KBr pellets. Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA)
were taken on a Perkin-Elmer Pyrisl (25–800 °C, 5 °C min−1, flowing
N2). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) graphics of samples was
acquired on JEOL-2010 electron microscope with an operating voltage
of 200 kV. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectra were collected at a
field-emission instrument of the type SU8010. Inductively coupled
plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) quantified the content
of Pd in Pd@MIL-101-NH2. Gas absorption isotherms were performed
with a Belsorp-Max automatic volumetric adsorption apparatus. The
catalytic reaction products were analyzed and identified by SP-2100A
gas chromatograph (GC, equipped with a Kromat-Bond Series capillary
column and a flame ionization detector).
uniform size of 1.5
1 nm. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(EDX) analysis showed a pattern containing element of Pd (Fig. 2a). The
content of Pd which was determined by ICP-AES was 2.02 wt%. To
reveal thermal stability of Pd@MIL-101-NH2, Thermogravimetric Ana-
lysis (TGA) experiment was carried out under N2 atmosphere conditions
at a rate of 10 °C min−1 over a range of 25–800 °C. As illustrated in Fig.
S2, the first main weight-loss was due to decomposition of the solvent
molecule DMF, unreacted 2-aminoterephthalic acid in cage of MOF to
ca. 100 °C. Weight losses in 393 °C attributed to decomposition of or-
ganic skeleton. This decomposition temperature compared well to the
value reported in the literature [44]. BET surface areas of MIL-101-NH2
and Pd@MIL-101-NH2 were determined by N2 physisorption measure-
ments at 77 K (Fig. S3). The BET surface area of MIL-101-NH2 was
2154 m2 g−1. The BET surface area of Pd@MIL-101-NH2 was reduced
to 1973 m2 g−1, mainly due to the fact that Pd NPs occupy the pores of
MIL-101-NH2, which was close to the previous report [45].
In order to confirm the successful synthesis of MIL-101-NH2 and
Pd@MIL-101-NH2, TEM, XRD, EDX, ICP-AES and FT-IR characteriza-
tions were performed. XRD of MIL-101-NH2 and Pd@MIL-101-NH2 is
displayed in Fig. 1, the XRD pattern of as-synthesized MIL-101-NH2
matched well with the already published XRD patterns, which suggest
that MIL-101-NH2 was obtained. After loading of Pd NPs, there was no
apparent loss of crystallinity in XRD patterns (Fig. 1), which demon-
strated that the frameworks of MIL-101-NH2 are mostly maintained.
Furthermore, we did not find any X-ray diffraction peaks from Pd na-
noparticles, probably due to the low Pd content. The FT-IR spectrums of
as-synthesized samples with a spectral range of 400–4000 cm−1 were
illustrated in Fig. S1. Strong bands exhibited by MIL-101-NH2 in the
range of 1750–1300 cm−1 were COO– symmetric, asymmetric
stretching vibration, CeC stretching vibration, which proved the ex-
istence of carboxylate linker in MIL-101-NH2 [41]. The CeH in-plane
and out-of-plane bending vibration of the aromatic ring corresponds to
a weak peak at 973 cm−1 and a peak at 759 cm−1 [42]. In addition, a
clear peak at 1619 cm−1 was NeH bending vibration, and NeH
asymmetric and symmetric stretching vibration of the amino groups
correspond to weak double peaks at 3378 cm−1 and 3461 cm−1 [43].
All of peaks of MIL-101-NH2 can be found correspondingly in spectrum
of Pd@MIL-101-NH2. The above evidence demonstrated that the
structure of MOF remained intact after attached Pd NPs, which was
Next we discuss the plausible mechanism of one-pot Suzuki-
Knoevenagel reaction. The plausible mechanism of Pd@MIL-101-NH2
in Suzuki reaction was depicted in Scheme 1.The catalytic cycle of the
addition reaction of Pd(0) with a aryl halide aromatic hydrocarbon to
form a complex of Pd(II), followed by metal transfer reaction with ac-
tivated boric acid to form another complex of Pd(II). The complex is
finally subjected to reduction-elimination to form a product and Pd(0)
[46]. Scheme 2 is the illustration of the possible catalytic mechanism of
malononitrile. In the first step, protons are taken from malononitrile by
a Lewis basic site of the catalyst to form a carbon anion. In the second
step, the carbon anion attacks the carbonyl carbon atom of benzalde-
hyde in the solution and forms a CeC bond by transferring a negative
charge to the oxygen atom. In the third step, the oxyanion acquires
protons from the Lewis basic site, forming water molecules. At the same
time, the Lewis basic site of the catalyst is regenerated [47].
series of one-pot Suzuki-Knoevenagel reactions were carried out in
different solvents and catalysts. Corresponding product yields were
obtained by GC. Firstly, we tested several different solvents for the
reaction catalyzed by Pd@MIL-101-NH2. When the first step solvents
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