Metal-Organic Frameworks as a New Class of Prose Materials in Catalytic Applications: Scope and Limitation

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a new class of crystalline pores materials with 3-D network structures, and they constructed from organic struts and metal-containing nodes as secondary building units (SBUs) [1-2]. MOFs with unique properties, including crystallinity, large and tuneable pore size and strong interaction between polytopic ligands and metal ions became an important class of pore materials. Since the discovery of the first MOF by Kinoshita and co-workers in 1954, a large number of MOFs with various metal ions and polytopic ligands have been reported. These classes of compounds have found their way through science by their fascinating framework topologies and design flexibility in which lead to broad applications in gas storage, gas separation, catalysis, sensors, and drug delivery systems. Metal-Organic Frameworks also can be classified as a subtitle of Porous Coordination Polymers (PCPs). MOFs with microporous structure can have a surface area as large as 5900 m2g-1 and pore volume of 2 ml g-1 with diverse topologies. More importantly, shape, size and chemical environment of pores of MOFs can be tailored by choosing suitable metal and SBUs in addition to functionalizing linkers by pre- or post-synthesis for a particular catalytic application. Figure 1 shows grow of catalytic applications of MOFs from 2005 up to 2014. Fast and study grow of this class of compounds, as catalysts and support, shows their bright and promising futures for academic researchers and industrial applications. In this presentation, an overview of catalytic applications of MOFs will be discussed in addition to their scope and limitation in the catalytic process.