Search

The direct replacement of sp3 C-H bonds with simple amine units (-NH2 ) remains synthetically challenging, although primary aliphatic amines are ubiquitous in medicinal chemistry and natural product synthesis. We report a mild and selective protocol for preparing primary and secondary aliphatic amines in a single pot, based on intermolecular sp3 C-H imination. The first C-H imination of diverse alkanes, this method shows useful site-selectivity within substrates bearing multiple sp3 C-H bonds. Furthermore, this reaction tolerates polar functional groups relevant for complex molecule synthesis, highlighted in the synthesis of amine pharmaceuticals and amination of natural products. We characterize a unique C-H imination mechanism based on radical rebound to an iminyl radical, supported by kinetic isotope effects, stereoablation, resubmission, and computational modeling. This work constitutes a selective method for complex amine synthesis and a new mechanistic platform for C-H amination.

Bis(pyrazolyl)alkanes are a prolific class of ligands for catalysis, accessible by the condensation between bis(pyrazolyl)methanones and carbonyls. In this report, we describe a nucleophile-catalyz...

We report a systematic study on the gas-phase polymerization of ethylene by a metal–organic framework (MOF) catalyst. Cr3+-exchanged MFU-4l (Cr(III)-MFU-4l, MFU-4l = Zn5Cl4(BTDD)3, H2BTDD = bis(1H-...

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) hold great promise as structurally tunable catalysts capable of high selectivity in the solid state, yet their comparatively high cost and often limited stability remain significant concerns for their commercialization as heterogeneous catalysts. Here, we report detailed X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies of Co- and Ni-MFU-4l, a class of highly selective MOF catalysts for olefin upgrading, and reveal mechanisms that lead to their deactivation. We further show that Ni-CFA-1, a more scalable and economical alternative to Ni-MFU-4l, reproduces both the local coordination structure and the high selectivity of the latter in ethylene dimerization catalysis. Under optimal conditions, Ni-CFA-1 activated by MMAO-12 achieves a turnover frequency of 37100 per hour and a selectivity of 87.1% for 1-butene, a combination of activity, selectivity, and affordability that is unmatched among heterogeneous ethylene dimerization catalysts. Ni-CFA-1 retains its high activity for at least 12 ...

Guerbet alcohols, a class of β-branched terminal alcohols, find widespread application because of their low melting points and excellent fluidity. Because of the limitations in the activity and selectivity of existing Guerbet catalysts, Guerbet alcohols are not currently produced via the Guerbet reaction but via hydroformylation of oil-derived alkenes followed by aldol condensation. In pursuit of a one-step synthesis of Guerbet alcohols from simple linear alcohol precursors, we show that MOF-derived RuCo alloys achieve over a million turnovers in the Guerbet reaction of 1-propanol, 1-butanol, and 1-pentanol. The active catalyst is formed in situ from ruthenium-impregnated metal-organic framework MFU-1. XPS and XAS studies indicate that the precatalyst is composed of Ru precursor trapped inside the MOF pores with no change in the oxidation state or coordination environment of Ru upon MOF incorporation. The significantly higher reactivity of Ru-impregnated MOF versus a physical mixture of Ru precursor and MOF suggests that the MOF plays an important role in templating the formation of the active catalyst and/or its stabilization. XPS reveals partial reduction of both ruthenium and MOF-derived cobalt under the Guerbet reaction conditions, and TEM/EDX imaging shows that Ru is decorated on the edges of dense nanoparticles, as well as thin nanoplates of CoOx. The use of ethanol rather than higher alcohols as a substrate results in lower turnover frequencies, and RuCo recovered from ethanol upgrading lacks nanostructures with plate-like morphology and does not exhibit Ru-enrichment on the surface and edge sites. Notably, 1H and 31P NMR studies show that through use of K3PO4 as a base promoter in the RuCo-catalyzed alcohol upgrading, the formation of carboxylate salts, a common side product in the Guerbet reaction, was effectively eliminated.

The direct replacement of sp

Summary Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have exciting potential for biomimetic studies of enzymes, yet construction of high-fidelity models at the metal nodes is challenging. Nonetheless, biomimetic MOFs have significant advantages, such as increased stability and ease of separation, over their enzymatic and homogeneous counterparts, making them particularly attractive for industrial applications. Here, we demonstrate biomimetic behavior of Zn hydroxide moieties inside a MOF with structural and reactivity characteristics of carbonic anhydrase. Similar to the biological system, the MOF binds CO2 by an insertion mechanism into the Zn–OH bond, leading to significant adsorption of CO2 (3.41 mmol/g). In reactivity mimicking that of the enzyme, the material also catalyzes the oxygen isotope exchange between water and carbon dioxide. Overall, these results provide the strongest evidence yet of metal nodes in MOFs bearing high structural fidelity to enzymatic active sites.

We report the selective dimerization of propylene to branched hexenes using Ni-MFU-4l, a solid catalyst prepared by cation exchange. Analysis of the resulting product distribution demonstrates that the selectivity arises from 2,1-insertion and slow product reinsertion, mechanistic features reproduced by a molecular nickel tris-pyrazolylborate catalyst. Characterization of Ni-MFU-4l by X-ray absorption spectroscopy provides evidence for discrete, tris-pyrazolylborate-like coordination of nickel, underscoring the small-molecule analogy that can be made at metal–organic framework nodes.

Vanadium catalysts offer unique selectivity in olefin polymerization, yet are underutilized industrially owing to their poor stability and productivity. Reported here is the immobilization of vanadium by cation exchange in MFU-4l, thus providing a metal–organic framework (MOF) with vanadium in a molecule-like coordination environment. This material forms a single-site heterogeneous catalyst with methylaluminoxane and provides polyethylene with low polydispersity (PDI≈3) and the highest activity (up to 148 000 h−1) reported for a MOF-based polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, polyethylene is obtained as a free-flowing powder as desired industrially. Finally, the catalyst shows good structural integrity and retains polymerization activity for over 24 hours, both promising attributes for the commercialization of vanadium-based polyolefins., National Science Foundation (grant no. DMR-1452612)

Molecular catalysts offer tremendous advantages for stereoselective polymerization because their activity and selectivity can be optimized and understood mechanistically using the familiar tools of organometallic chemistry. Yet, this exquisite control over selectivity comes at an operational price that is generally not justifiable for the large-scale manufacture of polyfolefins. In this report, we identify Co-MFU-4l, prepared by cation exchange in a metal-organic framework, as a solid catalyst for the polymerization of 1,3-butadiene with high stereoselectivity (99% 1,4-cis). To our knowledge, this is the highest stereoselectivity achieved with a heterogeneous catalyst for this transformation. The polymer's low polydispersity (PDI ≈ 2) and the catalyst's ready recovery and low leaching indicate that our material is a structurally resilient single-site heterogeneous catalyst. Further characterization of Co-MFU-4l by X-ray absorption spectroscopy provided evidence for discrete, tris-pyrazolylborate-like coordination of Co(II). With this information, we identify a soluble cobalt complex that mimics the structure and reactivity of Co-MFU-4l, thus providing a well-defined platform for studying the catalytic mechanism in the solution phase. This work underscores the capacity for small molecule-like tunability and mechanistic tractability available to transition metal catalysis in metal-organic frameworks.

A highly selective method for the synthesis of asymmetrically substituted carbocycles and heterocycles from unactivated aldehyde–olefin precursors has been achieved via enantioselective SOMO-catalysis. Addition of a catalytically generated enamine radical cation across a pendent olefin serves to establish a general asymmetric strategy towards the production of a wide range of formyl-substituted rings with alkene transposition. Conceptually, this novel mechanism allows direct access to “homo-ene” type products.

A recently developed metal-organic framework (MOF) catalyst for the dimerization of ethylene has a combination of selectivity and activity that surpasses that of commercial homogeneous catalysts, which have dominated this important industrial process for nearly 50 years. The uniform catalytic sites available in MOFs provide a unique opportunity to directly study reaction mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysts, a problem typically intractable due to the multiplicity of coordination environments found in many solid catalysts. In this work, we use a combination of isotopic labeling studies, mechanistic probes, and DFT calculations to demonstrate that Ni-MFU-4l operates via the Cossee-Arlman mechanism, which has also been implicated in homogeneous late transition metal catalysts. These studies demonstrate that metal nodes in MOFs mimic homogeneous catalysts not just functionally, but also mechanistically. They provide a blueprint for the development of advanced heterogeneous catalysts with similar degrees of tunability to their homogeneous counterparts.

The manufacture of advanced polyolefins has been critically enabled by the development of single-site heterogeneous catalysts. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show great potential as heterogeneous catalysts that may be designed and tuned on the molecular level. In this work, exchange of zinc ions in Zn5Cl4(BTDD)3, H2BTDD = bis(1H-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-b],[4',5'-i])dibenzo[1,4]dioxin) (MFU-4l) with reactive metals serves to establish a general platform for selective olefin polymerization in a high surface area solid promising for industrial catalysis. Characterization of polyethylene produced by these materials demonstrates both molecular and morphological control. Notably, reactivity approaches single-site catalysis, as evidenced by low polydispersity indices, and good molecular weight control. We further show that these new catalysts copolymerize ethylene and propylene. Uniform growth of the polymer around the catalyst particles provides a mechanism for controlling the polymer morphology, a relevant metric for continuous flow processes.

Current heterogeneous catalysts lack the fine steric and electronic tuning required for catalyzing the selective dimerization of ethylene to 1-butene, which remains one of the largest industrial processes still catalyzed by homogeneous catalysts. Here, we report that a metal–organic framework catalyzes ethylene dimerization with a combination of activity and selectivity for 1-butene that is premier among heterogeneous catalysts. The capacity for mild cation exchange in the material MFU-4l (MFU-4l = Zn5Cl4(BTDD)3, H2BTDD = bis(1H-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-b],[4′,5′-i])dibenzo[1,4]dioxin) was leveraged to create a well-defined and site-isolated Ni(II) active site bearing close structural homology to molecular tris-pyrazolylborate complexes. In the presence of ethylene and methylaluminoxane, the material consumes ethylene at a rate of 41,500 mol per mole of Ni per hour with a selectivity for 1-butene of up to 96.2%, exceeding the selectivity reported for the current industrial dimerization process., Nickel atoms installed at the nodes of a metal−organic framework act as active sites for the catalytic dimerization of ethylene to 1-butene with a combination of selectivity and activity that is premier among all heterogeneous catalysts.

A highly selective method for the synthesis of asymmetrically substituted carbocycles and heterocycles from unactivated aldehyde—olefin precursors is achieved via enantioselective singly occupied molecular orbital catalysis (SOMO-catalysis).