Supported high- and medium-entropy nanoalloys from MOFs catalyze the alkene oxidation reaction

Abstract

High- and medium-entropy alloys (HMEAs) are emerging as promising catalysts due to their different electronics and very good thermal stability. HMEAs have already exhibited remarkable catalytic performance in several electrocatalytic reactions involving small molecules; however, their use in thermal complex organic reactions is still in its infancy. Herein, we present a highly dense supported HMEA material (≈50 wt% in metal) prepared by the pyrolysis of a metal–organic framework (MOF), used as a template in virtue of its well-spaced single metal atoms, to obtain catalytic carbon-supported nano-HMEAs in a particle-to-particle synthetic way. The solid material shows a remarkable catalytic activity for alkene oxidation reactions and can be recycled at least 10 times; however, a higher activity of the monometallic catalysts in terms of the turnover number is found. These results constitute, to our knowledge, one of the first examples of catalytic HMEAs for organic synthesis.