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Till now, several MOFs have been reported16,18,21,22 as
heterogeneous catalysts of alkylbenzenes oxidation, including
two MnIII-metalloporphyrin MOFs,16,22 one CdII-9,10-anthracene
dibenzoate MOF18 and one Co–BTC–formate MOF.21 Oxidation
of ethylbenzene (EB) was conveniently performed as a typical
experiment. All of the MOFs except the Co MOF show highly
efficient and selective oxidation of alkylbenzene, with the
highest conversions of >99% for ZJU-18. Notably, Cu–BTC SiO2
monolith II in this work represents the same conversion and
selectivity as ZJU-18, but the effective weight is less and the
reaction time is reduced than those of ZJU-18. For the two MnIII-
metalloporphyrin MOFs, namely ZJU-18 and another CdII-POM-
based hybrid MOF, the catalytically active sites are based on a
MnIII-porphyrin16 rather than the coordination unsaturated
metal sites. While for the CdII, CoII, and CuII carboxylate MOFs,
all bearing unsaturated metal center aer activation, the
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (21201026), Youth Natural Science Foun-
dation of Jiangsu Province (BK20130248), Natural Science Fund
for Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province
(12KJB150002), Qing Lan Project and the Priority Academic
Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education
Institutions.
Notes and references
1 H. Furukawa, K. E. Cordova, M. O'Keeffe and O. M. Yaghi,
Science, 2013, 341, 974.
30224 | RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 30221–30224
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