Surfactant-assisted Assembly of Nanoscale Zinc Coordination Compounds to Enhance Tandem Conversion Reactions in Water

Precise control over morphology and size of coordination polymers (CPs) is crucial for extending these inorganic-organic materials to many advanced applications, in particular for heterogeneous catalysis. In this work, two Zn-based CPs, {[Zn3(idbt)2(4,4'-dmbpy)2]•H2O}n (1) and {[Zn3(idbt)2(H2O)3]•H2O}n (2) (H3idbt = 5,5'-(1H-imidazole-4,5-diyl)-bis-(2H-tetrazole), 4,4'-dmbpy = 4,4''-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine), were synthesized through solvothermal reactions. Their morphologies and particle sizes of 1-2 could be achieved from large scale to nanoscale by regulating the amount of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Furthermore, for the conversion reactions of nitromethylbenzenes into benzolic acids frameworks, the catalytic properties of nanoscale 1 and 2 were much more efficient than that of large size of 1 and 2, because of the benefit of readily accessible active sites in the nanoscale particle sizes, which could give the tunable and functionalizable platform for the conversion reaction by minimizing the diffusion distance but does little for their selectivity.