Iron-containing MIL-101(Cr) as highly active and stable heterogeneous catalysts for the benzylation of aromatics with benzyl chloride

In this work, we report for the first time that iron-containing MIL-101(Cr) was utilized as a highly active and stable heterogeneous catalyst for Friedel–Crafts alkylation. Fe/MIL-101(Cr) with 20 wt% Fe loading exhibited superior catalytic activity in the benzylation of benzene or mesitylene with relatively large molecular size. Importantly, the catalyst is a stable heterogeneous catalyst and can still maintain high catalytic activity after five cycles, even in the presence of a small amount of water.