Brønsted instead of Lewis acidity in functionalized MIL-101Cr MOFs for efficient heterogeneous (nano-MOF) catalysis in the condensation reaction of aldehydes with alcohols.

Porous chromium(III) 2-nitro-, 2-amino-, and nonfunctionalized terephthalate (MIL-101Cr) metal organic frameworks are heterogeneous catalysts for diacetal formation from benzaldehyde and methanol (B-M reaction) as well as other aldehydes and alcohols. MIL-101Cr-NO2 obtained by direct reaction between CrO3 and 2-nitro-terephthalate showed the highest activity with 99% conversion in the B-M reaction in 90 min and turnover numbers of 114. The activity decreased in the order MIL-101Cr-NO2 > MIL-101Cr > MIL-101Cr-NH2. Within different samples of nonfunctionalized MIL-101Cr the activity increased with surface area. Methanol gas sorption of the different MIL materials correlates with the BET surface area and pore volume but not with the diacetalization activity. Benzaldehyde adsorption from heptane showed no significant difference for the different MILs. Gas sorption studies of CD3CN to probe for a higher Lewis acidity in MIL-101Cr-NO2 remained inconclusive. A high B-M catalytic activity of wet MIL-101Cr-NO2 excluded significant contributions from coordinatively unsaturated Lewis-acid sites. pH measurements of methanol dispersions of the MIL materials gave the most acidic pH (as low as 1.9) for MIL-101Cr-NO2, which significantly increased over MIL-101Cr (3.0) to MIL-101Cr-NH2 (3.3). The increase in acidity is of short range or a surface effect to the heterogeneous MIL particles as protons dissociating from the polarized aqua ligands (Cr-OH2) have to stay near the insoluble counteranionic framework. The variation in Brønsted acidity of MIL-101Cr-NO2 > MIL-101Cr ≈ MIL-101Cr-NH2 correlates with the withdrawing effect of NO2 and the diacetalization activity. The catalytic B-M activity of soluble, substitution-inert, and acidic Cr(NO3)3·9H2O supports the Brønsted-acid effect of the MIL materials. Filtration and centrifugation experiments with MIL-101Cr-NO2 revealed that about 2/3 of the catalytic activity comes from nano-MOF particles with a diameter below 200 nm. The MIL-101Cr-NO2 catalysts can be recycled five times with very little loss in activity. The diacetalization activity of MIL-101Cr-NO2 decreases with the alcohol chain length from methanol over ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol, to almost inactive n-pentanol, while conversions for benzaldehyde, paratolylaldehyde, 4-chlorobenzaldehyde, and cyclohexanone all reach 90% or more after 90 min.