Scientists have made a large-pored metal-organic framework (MOF) that they say provides a conclusive answer to a long standing issue: do catalytic reactions take place inside the pores?

Chiral MOFs are of great interest for enantioselective catalysis but they have had limited success as enantioselective catalysis in terms of catalytic turnover and stereoselectivity, partly due to their lack of void space. There are a number of reports of chiral MOFs with pores large enough to accommodate whole molecules. It has been assumed that the reactions occur both at the surface and also in the pores but until now the evidence has been circumstantial, according to Nakcheol Jeong at Korea University in Seoul.

Jeong’s MOF has organic linkers that maintain local chirality with functional groups that can be modified on demand to produce new catalysts. He used the MOF catalyst for a carbonyl-ene reaction and says he has conclusively proved that the reaction occurs entirely inside the pores.

You can read Jeong’s Edge article for free in Chemical Science. Let us know if you agree with the conclusions by leaving your comments below.