Regulating the Flexibility to Assemble Porous Single-Atom Fe-Coordinated Metallopolymers for Efficient Heterogeneous Catalytic Oxidations

Metallopolymers as organic–inorganic hybrid materials formulated by metal embedding organic polymers show great potential for novel heterogeneous catalysis, in terms of the facile structural design and tunability. Herein, the disadvantage of nonporous stacking of one-dimensional (1D) structures has been suppressed by chain modulation of the 1D metallopolymers, allowing for the convenient construction of porous assemblies with single-atom dispersion and accessible active sites. By postmodification, the Fe/CM-1 catalyst readily synthesized by coordinating the Fe(II) to the twisted chain of 1D Schiff-base polymer possesses expedient flexibility, showing the highest porosity, remarkable heterogeneous recyclability, and thus prominent catalytic activity for the selective oxidation of benzylamine and alcohols. Moreover, control experiments supported by computational studies demonstrated that the unique pincer structure of Fe/CM-1 effectively maintains the valence state of the anchored single-atom iron, facilitating single-electron transfer and promoting efficient iron redox cycling during the catalytic process. Notably, these 1D metallopolymers have the advantage of cost-effectiveness, easy preparation in gram-scale, and utilization in continuous reaction, providing inspirations for facile synthesis of efficient heterogeneous catalysts from the well-developed 1D metallopolymers.