Advances in Metal-Organic Frameworks for Heterogeneous Catalysis

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) materials feature structures exhibiting mainly huge specific surface areas and pore volumes making them interesting for several applications. Originally, MOFs materials were used for storage of hydrogen or hydrocarbons although quickly the field of their possible applications has been extended to other important fields such as gas purification and separation, and sensor techniques among others important applications. However, the most promising field which has recently attracted the attention of many researches has been the performance of MOFs in catalytic applications by introduction of catalytically active sites into the framework. Nevertheless, for this purpose most of the MOFs structures that have been published lately suffer from undesired chemical and/or physical properties which prevent their use under real reaction conditions e.g., insufficient thermal stability in air, lack of tolerance towards moisture and many organic solvents. Therefore, the stability of these materials under real reaction conditions has to be considered before any application and particularly before catalytic applications. However, the use of MOFs as heterogeneous catalysts has shown a significance increase in the last two decades as they have been considered as an eco-friendly alternative for catalysis. This patent review highlights the advances in metalorganic frameworks as heterogeneous catalyst in a wide range of applications.