Fabricating MOF-Supported Nonprecious Metal Nanocatalysts from the Commercial Metal Dusts via a Mechanochemistry-Assisted Sacrificial Strategy

The reports on MOFs supported nonprecious metal nanocatalysts (NPM/MOFs) remain limited, primarily due to the conflict between the harsh conditions for the preparation of nonprecious metal nanoparticles and the poor stability of MOFs; the fabrication of NPM/MOFs has long been a challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a facile, versatile, and sustainable method to fabricate NPM/MOFs by directly reacting commercial metal dusts with the ligands through simple ball milling. In this approach, the metal dusts were sacrificed in situ to form the corresponding MOFs and etched into smaller nanoparticles at the same time. The developed approach entirely circumvents the harsh conditions typically required for the preparation of nonprecious metal nanoparticles, while preserving the porous structures of the MOFs. By this facile approach, several NPM/MOFs with intact pore structures were prepared. Moreover, this approach consumes trace amounts of solvent, conforming to the concept of sustainable synthesis. In addition, the synthesized Co/ZIF-67 nanocatalyst was tested in the hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes; it exhibits an exceptionally catalytic performance that is comparable to many noble metal nanocatalysts.