RESEARCH ARTICLE

Benzenesulfonic acid-grafted UIO-66 with improved hydrophobicity as a stable Brønsted acid catalyst

  • Zongliang Kou 1 ,
  • Guanlun Sun 1 ,
  • Qiuyan Ding 1 ,
  • Hong Li , 1 ,
  • Xin Gao 1,2 ,
  • Xiaolei Fan , 3,4 ,
  • Xiaoxia Ou 4 ,
  • Qinhe Pan , 5
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  • 1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Distillation Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
  • 2. Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations, Tianjin 300192, China
  • 3. Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
  • 4. Nottingham Ningbo China Beacons of Excellence Research and Innovation Institute, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China
  • 5. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Advanced Materials in Tropical Island Resources, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
lihongtju@tju.edu.cn
xiaolei.fan@manchester.ac.uk
panqh@hainanu.edu.cn

Received date: 29 Sep 2022

Accepted date: 18 Nov 2022

Published date: 15 Oct 2023

Copyright

2023 The Author(s). This article is published with open access at link.springer.com and journal.hep.com.cn

Abstract

Hydrothermal and catalytic stability of UIO-66 MOFs with defective structures are critical aspects to be considered in their catalytic applications, especially under the conditions involving water, moisture and/or heat. Here, we report a facile strategy to introduce the macromolecular acid group to UIO-66 to improve the stability of the resulting UIO-66−PhSO3H MOF in aqueous phase catalysis. In detail, UIO-66−PhSO3H was obtained by grafting benzenesulfonic acid on the surface of the pristine UIO-66 to introduce the hydrophobicity, as well as the Brønsted acidity, then assessed using catalytic hydrolysis of cyclohexyl acetate (to cyclohexanol) in water. The introduction of hydrophobic molecules to UIO-66 could prevent the material from being attacked by hydroxyl polar molecules effectively, explaining its good structural stability during catalysis. UIO-66−PhSO3H promoted the conversion of cyclohexyl acetate at ca. 87%, and its activity and textural properties were basically intact after the cyclic stability tests. The facile modification strategy can improve the hydrothermal stability of UIO-66 significantly, which can expand its catalytic applications in aqueous systems.

Cite this article

Zongliang Kou , Guanlun Sun , Qiuyan Ding , Hong Li , Xin Gao , Xiaolei Fan , Xiaoxia Ou , Qinhe Pan . Benzenesulfonic acid-grafted UIO-66 with improved hydrophobicity as a stable Brønsted acid catalyst[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2023 , 17(10) : 1389 -1398 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-022-2285-5

Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant No. 872102). The Chinese colleagues thank the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFE0123200). Fan X and Pan Q thank the International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of Hainan Province (Grant No. GHYF2022006) for the collaborative research.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2285-5 and is accessible for authorized users.

Open Access

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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