Space-confined growth of nanoscale metal-organic frameworks/Pd in hollow mesoporous silica for highly efficient catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Xiaojing Huang; Duoyu Lin; Pan Duan; Huiping Chen; Yujuan Zhao; Weiting Yang; Qinhe Pan; Xinlong Tian

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.09.075

Space-confined growth of nanoscale metal-organic frameworks/Pd in hollow mesoporous silica for highly efficient catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jan;629(Pt B):55-64. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.09.075. Epub 2022 Sep 18.

Authors

Xiaojing Huang¹, Duoyu Lin¹, Pan Duan¹, Huiping Chen¹, Yujuan Zhao¹, Weiting Yang², Qinhe Pan¹, Xinlong Tian³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Tropical Island Resources, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
² Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Tropical Island Resources, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China. Electronic address: yangwt@hainanu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Provincial Key Lab of Fine Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.

PMID: 36150248
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.09.075

Abstract

The development of confined growth of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in a nano-space remains a challenge mainly due to the spatial size randomness and inhomogeneity of host materials and the limitation of MOF species. In this study, we developed a general "stepwise vacuum evaporation" strategy, which allows the nano-confined growth of MOFs in hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres (HMSN) by the vacuum forces and the capillary effect. A series of nanoscale MOFs including ZIF-8, ZIF-90, HKUST-1, MIL-53(Cr) and UiO-66-NH₂ were confinely synthesized inside the cavities of HMSN, resulting in hierarchically porous composites with core-shell structures. Further functionalization was studied by anchoring Pd to obtain UiO-66-NH₂/Pd@HMSN catalyst, which exhibited excellent activity in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol under ambient condition.

Keywords: Catalytic reduction; Confined growth; Core-shell structure; Nanoscale MOFs; Stepwise vacuum evaporation.