Incorporation of Chromophores into Metal-Organic Frameworks for Boosting CO Conversion.

The exploitation of highly stable and active catalysts for the conversion of CO into valuable fuels is desirable but is a great challenge. Herein, we report that the incorporation of chromophores into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) could afford robust catalysts for efficient CO conversion. Specifically, a porous Nd(III) MOF (; TTCA = triphenylene-2,6,10-tricarboxylate) was constructed by incorporating one-dimensional Nd(CO) chains and TTCA ligands, which exhibits a very high stability, retaining its framework not only in the air at 300 °C for 2 h but also in boiling aqueous solutions at pH 1-12 for 7 days. More importantly, has achieved a 5-fold improvement in photocatalytic activity for reducing CO to HCOOH and a 10-fold improvement in catalytic activity for the cycloaddition of CO into cyclic carbonate in comparison to those of HTTCA itself. This work gives a new strategy to design efficient artificial crystalline catalysts for CO conversion.