Postsynthetic modification of IRMOF-3 with a copper iminopyridine complex as heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of 2-aminobenzothiazoles

A copper iminopyridine complex has been immobilized on to a metal-organic framework (MOF) through postsynthetic modification of IRMOF-3. The modified MOFs were fully demonstrated by using a variety of methods, and the structural integrity of the modified MOFs has been confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Furthermore, it was shown that the modified IRMOF-3 can act as an efficient solid catalyst for the synthesis of 2-aminobenzothiazoles via the reaction of 2-iodoanilines with isothiocyanates in a heterogeneous manner. Moreover, the catalyst could be facilely separated from the reaction mixture and reused for six consecutive cycles without significant degradation in catalytic activity. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.