A bifunctional robust and highly porous imidazolium-based ionic liquid decorated UiO-67 type MOF (UiO-67-IL, 1) was successfully constructed via solvothermal assembly of the imidazolium-based ligand and Zr(IV) ions. It exhibits a highly selective adsorption for CO over CH and N. Furthermore, 1 herein can be used as a highly active heterogeneous catalyst for CO cycloaddition with epoxides under atmospheric pressure with or without cocatalyst TBAB (n-BuNBr).

A Pd nano particle (NP)-loaded and nano metal-organic framework (NMOF)-based Pickering emulsifier is reported. The poly[2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)] (PDEAEMA) chains were grafted onto UiO-66-type NPs via a postsynthetic approach to generate PDEAEMA-g-UiO-66 NMOF (termed as MOF-3). The Pd NPs-loaded Pd@MOF-3 was synthesized via solution impregnation. Stable toluene-in-water Pickering emulsion was prepared with emulsifier Pd@MOF-3. Notably, the obtained Pd@MOF-3 is pH-responsive, and it is able to trigger the emulsification (at neutral condition) and demulsification (at acidic condition) of toluene droplets. Furthermore, it can be a highly active interfacial catalyst to effectively promote one-pot Knoevenagel condensation-hydrogenation cascade reaction at ambient conditions. The pH-responsive property allowed it to be in situ separated and recycled by demulsifying via simply tuning the pH value at the end of the reaction. This smart Pickering emulsion catalytic system is robust, and it can be recycled at least five times without loss of its catalytic activity.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are widely used as porous materials in the fields of adsorption and separation. However, their practical application is largely hindered by limitations to their processability. Herein, new UiO-66-Urea-based flexible membranes with MOF loadings of 50 (1), 60 (2), and 70 wt % (3) were designed and prepared by post-synthetic polymerization of UiO-66-NH2 nanoparticles and a polyurethane oligomer under mild conditions. The adsorption behavior of membrane 3 towards four hydrophilic dyes, namely, eosin Y (EY), rhodamine B (RB), malachite green (MG), and methylene blue (MB), in aqueous solution was studied in detail. It exhibits strong adsorption of EY and RB but weak adsorption of MG and MB in aqueous solution. Owing to the selective adsorption of these hydrophilic dyes, membrane 3 can remove EY and RB from aqueous solution and completely separate EY/MB, RB/MG, and RB/MB mixtures in aqueous solution. In addition, the membrane is uniformly textured, easily handled, and can be reused for dye adsorption and separation.

The crown ether-based covalent organic frameworks show excellent phase-transfer catalytic performance in various nucleophilic substitution reactions.