A Cu2+ post-functionalized MOF-253 for epoxide ring-opening catalysis under ambient conditions

The alcoholysis of epoxides is the core reaction for the synthesis of key intermediates of agricultural chemicals, drugs and polymers. Traditional catalysts have problems such as harsh synthesis conditions, difficult recovery or insufficient activity. In this paper, a new heterogeneous catalyst MOF-253-Cu was prepared by anchoring Cu (II) ions to the bipyridine N, N′ chelating site of MOF-253 through post-synthesis modification strategy. Characterized by PXRD, FTIR, XPS, etc., it was confirmed that Cu (II) was stably coordinated with the MOF-253 ligand, and the catalyst retained the original framework and the element distribution was uniform. The methanolysis of styrene oxide was used as a model reaction. The conversion rate of MOF-253-Cu reached 100% and the conversion frequency (TOF) was as high as 125 h −1 at room temperature. The performance was better than that of other metal functionalized derivatives such as Co, Ag and Ni. The catalyst has good universality for alcohols with different chain lengths/structures and various epoxides, and can be recycled for 5 times without obvious activity attenuation. The mechanism study shows that the reaction follows the S N 1 mechanism, and Cu (II) acts as a Lewis acid site to activate the epoxy ring. The MOF-253-Cu catalyst developed in this study has the advantages of simple synthesis, mild reaction conditions, high activity, recyclability and strong universality.