Facile synthesis of magnetic macroporous polymer/MOF composites as separable catalysts

Design and synthesis of magnetic macroporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been of significant interest, in order to improve the catalytic efficiency and reusability. In this work, we prepared magnetic macroporous MOF composites based on as-prepared magnetic macroporous polyacrylamides (MMPam). Different MOFs with or without unsaturated coordinative metal sites, including HKUST-1, MOF-2, UiO-66, and Fe-MIL-101(-NH2) were grown on and within the MMPam matrices. The composites showed hierarchical porosity with both micro- and macropores, which facilitated substrate diffusion to increase the conversion for isomerization of -pinene oxide from 62% in the case of pure HKUST-1 microparticles to 90% in the case of HKUST-1@MMPam. The magnetic property also endowed the composites with easy recovery and reasonable reusability.