Casting Nanoporous Platinum in Metal–Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Abstract Nanocasting based on porous templates is a powerful strategy in accessing materials and structures that are difficult to form by bottom‐up syntheses in a controlled fashion. A facile synthetic strategy for casting ordered, nanoporous platinum (NP‐Pt) networks with a high degree of control by using metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as templates is reported here. The Pt precursor is first infiltrated into zirconium‐based MOFs and subsequently transformed to 3D metallic networks via a chemical reduction process. It is demonstrated that the dimensions and topologies of the cast NP‐Pt networks can be accurately controlled by using different MOFs as templates. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface areas of the NP‐Pt networks are estimated to be >100 m 2 g −1 and they exhibit excellent catalytic activities in the methanol electrooxidation reaction (MEOR). This new methodology presents an attractive route to prepare well‐defined nanoporous materials for diverse applications ranging from energy to sensing and biotechnology.