Synthesis and Catalytic Properties of Porous Metal Silica Materials Templated and Functionalized by Extended Coordination Cages

A practically applicable strategy is developed to rationally immobilize easily accessed and highly dispersed redox-active metal oxides into porous metal silica (PMS) materials templated and functionalized by porous metal–ligand moieties. On the basis of this strategy, the highly active porous catalyst PMS-1 is successfully targeted for aerobic oxidation of cyclohexane with conversion up to 14.6%, which is much superior to the current industrially adopted catalysts (less than 4% cyclohexane conversion) that use harsh conditions. This promising approach to explore highly active heterogeneous catalysts for inert C–H bond activation should lead to the further discovery of numerous industrially useful catalysts for the oxidation of inert hydrocarbon raw materials.