Ru Active Centers Incorporated on Ce-MOFs as an Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for Oxidation of Alkylarenes to Carbonyls

Abstract

In recent years, the construction of the carbonyl group which can be extensively found in various important chemicals have attracted great interest of researchers. In this study, a strategy of coordination is employed to synthesize Ru-UiO-66-NH₂ (Ce) with uniformly dispersed Ru ions in UiO-66-NH₂ (Ce) MOFs as an efficiently heterogenous catalyst for the catalytic oxidation of benzyl sp3 C─H bond to the carbonyl group in water. The characterized results indicate that the active Ru centers were successfully incorporated via the coordination with the amino group in UiO-66-NH₂ (Ce) MOFs. This strategy could furnish more catalytic active sites to improve the catalytic performance of Ru-UiO-66-NH₂ (Ce). A series of alkylarenes could be efficiently oxidized to ketones with Ru-UiO-66-NH₂ (Ce) catalyst under mild conditions. Furthermore, the catalyst's recyclability demonstrated that its catalytic performance remained robust, with no significant loss in the catalytic activity observed after being recycled seven times.