N-Heterocyclic carbenes and their precursors in functionalised porous materials

Though N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have emerged as diverse and powerful discrete functional molecules in pharmaceutics, nanotechnology, and catalysis over decades, the heterogenization of NHCs and their precursors for broader applications in porous materials, like metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), porous coordination polymers (PCPs), covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), porous organic polymers (POPs), and porous organometallic cages (POMCs) was not extensively studied until the last ten years. By de novo or post-synthetic modification (PSM) methods, myriads of NHCs and their precursors containing building blocks were designed and integrated into MOFs, PCPs, COFs, POPs and POMCs to form various structures and porosities. Functionalisation with NHCs and their precursors significantly expands the scope of the potential applications of porous materials by tuning the pore surface chemical/physical properties, providing active sites for binding guest molecules and substrates and realizing recyclability. In this review, we summarise and discuss the recent progress on the synthetic methods, structural features, and promising applications of NHCs and their precursors in functionalised porous materials. At the end, a brief perspective on the encouraging future prospects and challenges in this contemporary field is presented. This review will serve as a guide for researchers to design and synthesize more novel porous materials functionalised with NHCs and their precursors.

N-heterocyclic carbene-functionalized metal-organic frameworks for the chemical fixation of CO2

N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are a class of molecules with a lone pair of carbene electrons and thus, they have the ability to activate CO2 to form imidazolium carboxylates. The incorporation of activated, metal-free NHC moieties into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) without the decomposition of metal-carboxylate coordination motifs is highly desired owing to the high CO2 affinity and versatile chemical functionalities in MOFs. Herein, we have summarized the recent in situ generation approaches to form metal-free NHC-functionalized MOFs, which are a unique class of CO2-conversion catalysts with high catalytic activity, selectivity and stability, superior to those of homogenous and other heterogeneous NHC analogues. The NHC-functionalized MOFs for catalytic CO2 reduction include reactions such as the hydroboration of CO2, hydrosilylation of CO2, N-methylation using CO2 and hydrogenation of CO2 to formic acid. Overall, the synthetic strategy of metal-free NHC-functionalized MOFs, the unique catalytic pathways of NHC-functionalized MOFs, and potentially new research directions of NHC-functionalized MOFs are discussed, which will guide researchers to attempt to design new NHC-MOFs and extend their catalytic applications in the chemical fixation of CO2.

Selective CO2 adsorption by a new metal–organic framework: synergy between open metal sites and a charged imidazolinium backbone

A new metal–organic framework features a combination of open metal sites and charged ligand leading to a high CO₂/N₂ selectivity.