Metal Nanocluster-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks for Catalysis

2 Metal nanoclusters (MNCs) are a class of ultrafine metal nanoparticles, comprising several metal atoms that possess distinctive electronic and geometric structures. In addition to these intrinsic properties, MNCs have various structural parameters that can be precisely tuned, such as the number of constituent atoms, geometric configuration, and heteroatom doping with other metal species. Because MNCs exhibit unique catalytic performance that is highly dependent on these structural factors, their synthesis and application in catalysis have been actively investigated in recent years. Notably, metal nanocluster-based metal-organic frameworks (MNC-MOFs) have emerged as a novel class of porous crystalline nanomaterials. These frameworks not only retain the unique characteristics of the parent MNCs that serve as their secondary building units but also acquire enhanced structural stability and additional functionalities derived from the bridging organic linkers. In this review, we summarize the catalytic performance of MNC-MOFs and discuss the outlook of this rapidly developing research field.