Spatial Confinement of Solution‐Inaccessible Single‐Site Cu(I) in a Molecular Titanium–Oxo Cage for Efficient Photo‐Electrocatalytic Urea Synthesis

Abstract We introduce a precisely engineered molecular titanium‐oxo cage, Ti 16 O 24 Bz 24 (denoted as Ti 16 ; Bz = C 6 H 5 CO 2 ), designed to host a spatially confined Cu + single‐atom site, that enables efficient and selective C─N coupling from CO 2 and NO 3 − under photo‐electrocatalytic (PEC) conditions, providing a molecular‐level blueprint for multi‐reactant coupling catalysis. Ti 16 features a large internal cavity assembled from TiO 6 octahedra shielded by a hydrophobic benzoate shell. Metalation of Ti 16 with CuCl 2 /NaBH 4 incorporates Cu + ions, displacing encapsulated H 3 O + and enabling the synthesis of Ti 16 Cu x ( x = 0.25–8). Among the Ti 16 Cu x series, Ti 16 Cu 2 demonstrates optimal performance under PEC conditions, achieving a high urea yield of 20 mmol g cat −1 h −1 with a Faradaic efficiency of 85% and a selectivity of 62% at −0.6 V versus RHE, outperforming most reported Cu‐based systems. Spectroscopic and structural analyses reveal that C─N bond formation occurs via coupling of *CO and *NO species at the confined Cu sites, highlighting the essential role of the molecular cage in stabilizing reactive species and facilitating their interaction. This work establishes cage‐like metal–oxo clusters as an atomically precise and versatile molecular platform for developing highly selective single‐atom catalysts for challenging multi‐reactant coupling reactions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Published
2025-10-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202518472
Primary Topic
Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications
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article
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article

Spatial Confinement of Solution‐Inaccessible Single‐Site Cu(I) in a Molecular Titanium–Oxo Cage for Efficient Photo‐Electrocatalytic Urea Synthesis

Guanyun Zhang, Lixia Xuan, Shou‐Qing Ni, Junshuo Nie et al.
Angewandte Chemie
Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications
article

Spatial Confinement of Solution‐Inaccessible Single‐Site Cu(I) in a Molecular Titanium–Oxo Cage for Efficient Photo‐Electrocatalytic Urea Synthesis

Guanyun Zhang, Lixia Xuan, Shou‐Qing Ni, Junshuo Nie, Fangfang Gao, Juan Wang, Yifeng Wang, Yuting Li, Guo Wang, Dexin Wang, Menghui Chu, Linping Liu
article en

Abstract

Abstract We introduce a precisely engineered molecular titanium‐oxo cage, Ti 16 O 24 Bz 24 (denoted as Ti 16 ; Bz = C 6 H 5 CO 2 ), designed to host a spatially confined Cu + single‐atom site, that enables efficient and selective C─N coupling from CO 2 and NO 3 − under photo‐electrocatalytic (PEC) conditions, providing a molecular‐level blueprint for multi‐reactant coupling catalysis. Ti 16 features a large internal cavity assembled from TiO 6 octahedra shielded by a hydrophobic benzoate shell. Metalation of Ti 16 with CuCl 2 /NaBH 4 incorporates Cu + ions, displacing encapsulated H 3 O + and enabling the synthesis of Ti 16 Cu x ( x = 0.25–8). Among the Ti 16 Cu x series, Ti 16 Cu 2 demonstrates optimal performance under PEC conditions, achieving a high urea yield of 20 mmol g cat −1 h −1 with a Faradaic efficiency of 85% and a selectivity of 62% at −0.6 V versus RHE, outperforming most reported Cu‐based systems. Spectroscopic and structural analyses reveal that C─N bond formation occurs via coupling of *CO and *NO species at the confined Cu sites, highlighting the essential role of the molecular cage in stabilizing reactive species and facilitating their interaction. This work establishes cage‐like metal–oxo clusters as an atomically precise and versatile molecular platform for developing highly selective single‐atom catalysts for challenging multi‐reactant coupling reactions.

Angewandte ChemieVol. 137(50)
Shandong University (CN), Suzhou Research Institute (CN), Capital Normal University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 77%
Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications
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