Efficient Friedel–Crafts acylation of anisole over silicotungstic acid modified ZIF-8

Silicotungstic acid (STA) modified ZIF-8 catalyst was developed by simple impregnation method for Friedel–Craft acylation reaction. The best performance was observed on 20 wt% STA/ZIF-8, over which conversion of anisole and selectivity towards p-benzoylanisole reached 99.2 and 93.5%, respectively. N 2 physisorption, XRD, FT-IR, TGA and Pyridine FT-IR characterizations indicated that introduction of STA to ZIF-8 did not change its main structure but increased its acid site density, which promised enhanced catalytic performance of the obtained catalyst. Moreover, the performance of the catalyst was further proved through a series of substrates with electron donor or withdraw substitution group, since all of substrates could be converted to corresponding p-isomer effectively.