Construction of Interpenetrated Ruthenium Metal-Organic Frameworks as Stable Photocatalysts for CO2 Reduction.

Poor stability has long been a major obstacle to the practical applications of metal-organic framework (MOF) photocatalysts. This problem can be overcome by the use of structural interpenetration. In this work, by modifying Ru metalloligands, we have rationally designed two Ru-polypyridine based MOFs (with non-interpenetrated and interpenetrated structures, respectively), both of which exhibit similar photocatalytic activities for CO2 photoreduction. Remarkably, the interpenetrated Ru-MOF possesses good photocatalytic durability and recyclability, and shows much higher thermal and photic stability in comparison with its non-interpenetrated counterpart. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the stability of MOF photocatalysts was improved by using structural interpenetration.