Engineering Second Sphere Interactions in a Host–Guest Multicomponent Catalyst System for the Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol

Many enzymes utilize interactions extending beyond the primary coordination sphere to enhance catalyst activity and/or selectivity. Such interactions could improve the efficacy of synthetic catalyst systems, but the supramolecular assemblies employed by biology to incorporate second sphere interactions are challenging to replicate in synthetic catalysts. Herein, a strategy is reported for efficiently manipulating outer-sphere influence on catalyst reactivity by modulating host-guest interactions between a noncovalently encapsulated transition-metal-based catalyst guest and a metal-organic framework (MOF) host. This composite consists of a ruthenium PNP pincer complex encapsulated in the MOF UiO-66 that is used in tandem with the zirconium oxide nodes of UiO-66 and a ruthenium PNN pincer complex to hydrogenate carbon dioxide to methanol. Due to the method used to incorporate the complexes in UiO-66, structure-activity relationships could be efficiently determined using a variety of functionalized UiO-66-X hosts. These investigations uncovered the beneficial effects of the ammonium functional group (i.e., UiO-66-NH3+). Mechanistic experiments revealed that the ammonium functionality improved efficiency in the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to formic acid, the first step in the cascade. Isotope effects and structure-activity relationships suggested that the primary role of the ammonium functionality is to serve as a general Brønsted acid. Importantly, the cooperative influence from the host was effective only with the functional group in close proximity to the encapsulated catalyst. Reactions carried out in the presence of molecular sieves to remove water highlighted the beneficial effects of the ammonium functional group in UiO-66-NH3+ and resulted in a 4-fold increase in activity. As a result of the modular nature of the catalyst system, the highest reported turnover number (TON) (19 000) and turnover frequency (TOF) (9100 h-1) for the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol are obtained. Moreover, the reaction was readily recyclable, leading to a cumulative TON of 100 000 after 10 reaction cycles.