Enzyme-mimicking of iron-sites in metal-organic frameworks for methane oxidation to methanol

Resum

The aim is to use X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES), X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) and Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD) to gain structural information on MOFs modified post-synthetically for catalytic purposes. The targeted compounds have been prepared by exposing MOF-808 to amino acid and carboxyl acid functions, to later on immobilize FeII or FeIII ions similarly than metalloenzyme and methane monooxygenase does. This synthetic strategy does not allow us to predict neither the oxidation state nor coordination environment of the metallic ions, which is essential to understand the catalytical activity of the final compounds in the oxidation of methane to methanol, specially after their activation with oxidant species as O2, H2O2 or NO2. In a long-term perspective, the knowledge gained from the proposed experiments will be used to establish a methodology to deliberately tune the catalytic sites installed into the pore space of MOFs, and hence, their functionality.