Acyl-amide is extensively used as functional group and
is a superior
contender for the design of MOFs with the guest accessible functional
organic sites. A novel acyl-amide-containing tetracarboxylate ligand,
bis(3,5-dicarboxy-pheny1)terephthalamide, has been successfully synthesized.
The H4L linker has some fascinating attributes as follows:
(i) four carboxylate moieties as the coordination sites confirm affluent
coordination approaches to figure a diversity of structure; (ii) two
acyl-amide groups as the guest interaction sites can engender guest
molecules integrated into the MOF networks through H-bonding interfaces
and have a possibility to act as functional organic sites for the
condensation reaction. A mesoporous MOF ([Cu2(L)(H2O)3]·4DMF·6H2O) has been prepared
in order to produce the amide FOS within the MOF, which will work
as guest accessible sites. The prepared MOF was characterized by CHN
analysis, PXRD, FTIR spectroscopy, and SEM analysis. The MOF showed
superior catalytic activity for Knoevenagel condensation. The catalytic
system endures a broad variety of the functional groups and presents
high to modest yields of aldehydes containing electron withdrawing
groups (4-chloro, 4-fluoro, 4-nitro), offering a yield > 98 in
less
reaction time as compared to aldehydes with electron donationg groups
(4-methyl). The amide decorated MOF (LOCOM-1-) as a heterogeneous
catalyst can be simply recovered by centrifugation and recycled again
without a flagrant loss of its catalytic efficiency.