Metal-organic frameworks as a new platform for molecular oxygen and aerobic oxidation of organic substrates: Recent advances

Since metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a novel kind of crystalline porous materials containing metal ions and organic linkers have emerged in the early 1990s, the number of publications associated with MOFs have remarkably grown in various fields including synthesis methods, structure analysis, gas storage, separation, drug delivery and catalysis. In this review, we outline the recent progress in the application of MOFs as heterogeneous catalysts for oxidations, focusing on the processes that have used the molecular oxygen or air as an oxidant. These two types of oxidants comply with the philosophy of green chemistry and thus provide the greener method concerning environmental benignity and sustainability. Also, the tandem oxidation processes (TOP) which are catalyzed in a manner mentioned above and their proposed mechanisms are presented in detail. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.