Porous barium–organic frameworks with highly efficient catalytic capacity and fluorescence sensing ability

Abstract

The current study describes the first barium–organic framework with permanent porosity, efficient catalytic capacity, and highly selective luminescence sensing of DMSO molecules and metal ions. Single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformations (from complex 1 to complexes 2 and 3) were used to thermally generate coordinatively unsaturated metal sites (CUSs) as catalytically active sites (CASs). Complex 3 exhibits efficient catalytic capacity for the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones, and the cycloaddition of CO₂ and epoxides. To the best of our knowledge, complex 3 keeps a record among the MOF-based catalysts for the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones. The generation of Ba²⁺ CUSs with high catalytic activity in a SCSC fashion is responsible for the excellent properties of 3, which is further confirmed by the theoretical calculation. Besides, complex 2 can highly sense DMSO molecules through fluorescence enhancement.