Carbonyl-supported coordination in imidazolates: a platform for designing porous nickel-based ZIFs as Heterogeneous Catalysts
In the last 20 years, the interest in Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIF) has seen a rapid increase in interest in various fields, from medicine to catalysis. ZIFs are a subclass of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that have attracted considerable attention as potential functional materials due to their high chemical stability and ease of synthesis. ZIFs are usually composed of zinc ions coordinated with imidazole linkers, with some other transition metals, such as Cu(II) and Co(II), also showing potential as ZIF-forming cations. From the very beginning, several groups have tried to prepare ZIFs with nickel, as a potential single-site nickel catalyst, but were unsuccessful.
In our research, we hypothesized a potential problem why nickel was not incorporating into the 3D ZIF framework and tested it. Through the use of functionalized building blocks, which consequently enabled the octahedral coordination of nickel instead of the classic tetrahedral one found in ZIFs, we successfully prepared two nickel ZIFs. The prepared ZIFs show an affinity for water (NICS-21) and CO2 (NICS-22) comparable to or better than the currently best ZIFs. The applicability of the materials as heterogeneous organocatalysts was then verified by the heterogeneous Suzuki-Miyaura reaction, where both proved to be active catalysts, with NICS-21 also demonstrating cyclability.
The research was created in collaboration between researchers from Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology of the National Institute of Chemistry, the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana and University of Stockholm.
Link to the article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.202305258
More information: natasa.zabukovec(at)ki.si; aljaz.skrjanc(at)ki.si