Porous Metal-Organic Polyhedral Framework containing Cuboctahedron Cages as SBUs with High Affinity for H and CO Sorption: A Heterogeneous Catalyst for Chemical Fixation of CO.

Development of active porous materials that can efficiently adsorb H and CO is needed, due to their practical utilities. Here we present the design and synthesis of an interpenetrated Cu metal-organic framework (MOF) that is thermally stable, highly porous and can act as a heterogeneous catalyst. The Cu -MOF contains a highly symmetric polyhedral metal cluster (Cu ) with cuboctahedron geometry as secondary building unit (SBU). The double interpenetration of such huge cluster-containing nets provides a high density of open metal sites, due to which it exhibits remarkable H storage capacity (313 cm g at 1 bar and 77 K) as well as high CO capture ability (159 cm g at 1 bar and 273 K). Further, its propensity towards CO sorption can be utilized for the heterogeneous catalysis of the chemical conversion of CO into the corresponding cyclic carbonates upon reaction with epoxides, with high turnover number and turnover frequency values.