A novel MOF/BiFeO3 composite as a catalyst for efficient and selective oxidation of alcohols

Abstract

In this work, a novel metal–organic framework based composite with BiFeO₃ noted as MOF/BiFeO₃ has been synthesized and successfully employed as a highly efficient heterogeneous and recoverable catalyst for oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols under mild conditions. Accordingly, existence of high porosity and active sites of both MOF and BiFeO₃ are driving forces for the progress of the oxidation reaction. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transition electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Barret–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) methods were used for the catalyst characterization.