Site Specific Supramolecular Heterogeneous Catalysis by Optically Patterned Soft Oxometalate - Porous Organic Framework (SOM-POF) Hybrid on a Chip

Preethi Thomas, Cuiying Pei, Basudev Roy, Subhrokoli Ghosh, Santu Das, Ayan Banerjee, Teng Ben, Shilun Qiu and Soumyajit Roy
We have designed a supramolecularly bound multi-component catalytic material based on a soft oxometalate (SOM) and a porous organic framework (POF) material which shows high catalytic conversion efficiency. We have also used this material for site directed supramolecular heterogeneous catalysis with yield even higher than in the bulk, and with micron-level precision by controllably depositing the material on a glass substrate, making a reactor chip, using a thermo-optical tweezers. Various SOM-POF composites have been prepared in dispersion phase and patterned using thermo-optic tweezers and their catalytic activities have been compared with a benchmark molecular catalyst [PMo12]. This work can lead to further explorations for hybrid materials formed out of well defined molecular level precursors which can be controllably micro-patterned in order to catalyze targeted reactions simultaneously.

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