Abstract
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous, crystalline materials with the potential to act as supports for heterogeneous catalysis. Owing to the presence of tunable organic linkers, these materials can be functionalized to support catalytically active metals. Many MOFs exhibit poor chemical and thermal stability, making them ill-equipped for heterogeneous catalysis. However, the MFU and UiO families of MOFs have been shown to exhibit high degrees of chemical, thermal, and structural stability. The first part of this thesis focuses on the synthesis of amine-functionalized organic linkers for the synthesis of new MFU and UiO MOFs. We have successfully synthesized dipyrazolate linkers (Me2pyz)2biPh [(Me2pyz)2biPh = 4,4'-bis(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-1,1'-biphenyl] and (Me2pyz)2biPh-NO2 [(Me2pyz)2biPh-NO2 = 4,4'-(2-nitro-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diyl)bis(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazole) or assembly of MFU frameworks. The second part of the thesis describes the synthesis of UiO-67 types MOFs with amine-functionalized 4,4’-biphenyl dicarboxylate linkers. Incorporation of these linkers into MFU and UiO frameworks will allow us to use post-synthetic modification as a means of incorporating catalytically active metals and examine their potential for heterogeneous catalysis.