Porous Metal–Organic Frameworks for Heterogeneous Biomimetic Catalysis

Metalloporphyrins are the active sites in monooxygenases that oxidize a variety of substrates efficiently and under mild conditions. Researchers have developed artificial metalloporphyrins, but these structures have had limited catalytic applications. Homogeneous artificial metalloporphyrins can undergo catalytic deactivation via suicidal self-oxidation, which lowers their catalytic activity and sustainability relative to their counterparts in Nature. Heme molecules in protein scaffolds can maintain high efficiency over numerous catalytic cycles. Therefore, we wondered if immobilizing metalloporphyrin moieties within porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) could stabilize these structures and facilitate the molecular recognition of substrates and produce highly efficient biomimetic catalysis. In this Account, we describe our research to develop multifunctional porphyrinic frameworks as highly efficient heterogeneous biomimetic catalysts. Our studies indicate that porous porphyrinic frameworks provide an excellent platform for mimicking the activity of biocatalysts and developing new heterogeneous catalysts that effect new chemical transformations under mild conditions. The porous structures and framework topologies of the porphyrinic frameworks depend on the configurations, coordination donors, and porphyrin metal ions of the metalloporphyrin moieties. To improve the activity of porous porphyrinic frameworks, we have developed a two-step synthesis that introduces the functional polyoxometalates (POMs) into POM-porphyrin hybrid materials. To tune the pore structures and the catalytic properties of porphyrinic frameworks, we have designed metalloporphyrin M-H8OCPP ligands with four m-benzenedicarboxylate moieties, and introduced the secondary auxiliary ligands. The porphyrin metal ions and the secondary functional moieties that are incorporated into porous metal-organic frameworks greatly influence the catalytic properties and activities of porphyrinic frameworks in different reactions, such as the oxidation of alkylbenzenes, olefins, and hexane and the photo-oxygenation of 1,5-dihydroxynaphthalene and sulfides. The porphyrin metal ions and the secondary auxiliary sites in the pores can work together synergistically to enhance the catalytic activities of porphyrinic frameworks. Compared with their homogeneous counterparts, the activities and stabilities of the heterogeneous porphyrinic frameworks are remarkable: the immobilization of metalloporphyrins onto the pore surfaces of MOFs not only prevents their suicidal self-oxidation but also allows them to activate inert substrate molecules, such as cyclohexane. Moreover, because the bulky molecules cannot easily access the active sites inside the pores of porphyrinic frameworks, these porous materials demonstrate interesting size-selective catalytic properties toward substrates.