Accelerated production of active oxygen species in MOFs-based porous ionic liquids: Greatly enhancing catalytic oxidation

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted significant attention in catalysis due to their permanent porosity and abundance of active sites. However, mass transfer limitations and low active site utilization in heterogeneous reactions have hindered the efficient production of active oxygen species in catalytic processes. Fortunately, MOF-based porous ionic liquids integrate the catalytic activity of solid catalysis and fluidity of ionic liquids. Herein, we synthesized UiO-66-based porous ionic liquids (PIL-UiO-66) for catalytic oxidative desulfurization. The cavity of the UiO-66 moiety has been confirmed to be empty through gas uptake studies and molecular dynamics simulations. Due to the imidazolium-based ionic liquid with superb mass transfer accelerating production of active oxygen species, PIL-UiO-66 demonstrated an enhanced desulfurization efficiency (98.3%) than UiO-66 (33.1%). Ultimately, the oxidation mechanism was revealed by the experimental results along with the theoretical calculations the oxidation mechanism. These findings provide an effective approach to developing MOFs-based PILs as catalysis.