Homochiral Metal-Organic Frameworks for Asymmetric Heterogeneous Catalysis

An overview of on metal-organic frameworks (MOF)-based asymmetric heterogeneous catalysis is discussed by presenting the state of the art in this field and discussing its potential and limitations. Tanaka et al. reported the synthesis of a copper-BINOL-based chiral framework and its catalytic activity in the asymmetric ring-opening reaction of epoxides with amines. Lin group successfully synthesized chiral porous coordination polymers for asymmetric catalysis using both MPD and MPP strategies, they were amorphous, which made the detailed structural characterization of the active sites impossible. Later the group succeeded in synthesizing a crystalline homochiral MOF using a pyridyl functionalized BINOL linker. Jeong and co-workers also utilized a similar dual functional enantiopure linker in which the two phenyl rings are orthogonal to each other to avoid the steric repulsion between the hydroxy and methyl groups, to synthesize a homochiral MOF containing chiral dihydroxy groups on the linkers of the framework.