Multifunctional PdAg@MIL-101 for One-Pot Cascade Reactions: Combination of Host-Guest Cooperation and Bimetallic Synergy in Catalysis

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) stabilized by metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are very promising for catalysis, while reports on their cooperative catalysis for a cascade reaction have been very rare. In this work, Pd NPs incorporated into a MOF, MIL-101, have jointly completed a tandem reaction on the basis of MOF Lewis acidity and Pd NPs. Subsequently, ultrafine PdAg alloy NPs (similar to 1.5 nm) have been encapsulated into MIL-101. The obtained multifunctional PdAg@MIL-101 exhibits good catalytic activity and selectivity in cascade reactions under mild conditions, on the basis of the combination of host-guest cooperation and bimetallic synergy, where MIL-101 affords Lewis acidity and Pd offers hydrogenation activity while Ag greatly improves selectivity to the target product. As far as we know, this is the first work on bimetallic NP@MOFs as multifunctional catalysts with multiple active sites (MOF acidity and bimetallic species) that exert respective functions and cooperatively catalyze a one-pot cascade reaction.