Bimetallic Fe–Cu metal organic frameworks for room temperature catalysis

Bimetallic Fe–Cu MOF was effectively synthesized through a one-pot solvothermal process and successfully characterized by TEM, XPS, SEM, XRD, BET, EDX, elemental mapping, and FT-IR analysis. This bimetallic MOF was employed as a catalyst in the reduction of nitroarenes at room temperature and as well as in the reduction of dyes, for example, methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB). Results pointed to Fe–Cu MOF exhibiting outstanding catalytic performance for both room temperature reactions. The catalytic activity of Fe–Cu MOF in comparison with Fe-MOF and Cu-MOF in the nitroarenes reduction indicated a superior activity compared with single-metal MOFs. Activity of Fe–Cu MOF catalyst did not change after its recycling and reusing for seven consecutive cycles in nitrobenzene reduction. The authors are grateful to Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) Research Council and Iran National Science Foundation (INSF-Grant number of 97016837). This publication has also been supported by RUDN University Strategic Academic Leadership Program (R. Luque). We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (projects CTQ2016-81893REDT and RED2018-102387-T), the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER, EU) (projects CTQ2016-76782-P, CTQ2016-80375-P, CTQ2017-82935-P and PID2019-107268GB-I00), Generalitat Valenciana (IDIFEDER/2021/013) and the University of Alicante.