A nanoporous metal-organic framework with accessible Cu2+ sites for the catalytic Henry reaction.

A novel 3D porous metal-organic framework containing 1D nanoscale opening channels was constructed from two kinds of pyridine carboxylates and copper(II) nodes with reachable copper sites located in the channel walls, which can be subsequently used to prompt the Henry reaction of benzaldehydes and nitroalkanes with remarkable catalytic activity compared with homogeneous copper cations.