Template-Directed Synthesis of Photocatalyst-Encapsulating\nMetal–Organic Frameworks with Boosted Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

In\nthe past decade, the use of visible light to promote organic\ntransformations has gained intense attention. In this study, we developed\na template-directed synthesis method to use homogeneous Ru and Ir\nphotocatalysts as structure-directing templates and succeeded to prepare\na series of photocatalyst-encapsulating metal–organic frameworks\n(photocatalyst@MOFs) with zeolite-like structures. The open channels\nand polyhedral cages of MOFs effectively dispersed the encapsulated\nphotocatalysts and facilitated the transport of reactants and products,\nleading to boosted catalytic activity and good reusability toward\nimportant organic reactions such as aerobic oxidation reaction of\nbenzyl halides and the cyclization of tertiary anilines and maleimides\nunder visible light. Moreover, we also demonstrate the versatility\nand universality of our templating strategy. It not only can form\nMOFs which cannot be accessed by other synthesis methods, but also\ncan encapsulate various commercially available homogeneous photocatalysts\ninto MOFs. This work explores an avenue to prepare heterogeneous photocatalysts\nto catalyze value-added reactions.