Atomically dispersed Ru species inside MOFs combining high activity of atomic sites and molecular sieving effect of MOFs

Incorporating atomically dispersed metal species into functionalized metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) can integrate their respective merits to have important applications in catalysis. Here we report a cage‐controlled encapsulation and reduction strategy to fabricate single Ru atoms and triatomic Ru3 clusters anchored on ZIF‐8 (Ru1@ZIF‐8, Ru3@ZIF‐8). The highly efficient and selective catalysis for semi‐hydrogenation of alkyne is observed. The excellent activity derives from high atom‐efficiency of atomically dispersed Ru active sites and hydrogen enrichment by ZIF‐8 shell. Meanwhile, ZIF‐8 shell serves as a novel "molecular sieve" for olefins to achieve the absolute regioselectivity of catalyzing terminal alkynes but not internal alkynes. Moreover, the size‐dependent performance between Ru3@ZIF‐8 and Ru1@ZIF‐8 is detected in experiment and understood by quantum‐chemical calculations, demonstrating a new and promising approach to optimize catalysts by preciously controlling the number of atoms.

from A via a.sfakia on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2TyyESd