Control of evolution of porous copper-based metal-organic materials for electroreduction of CO to multi-carbon products.

Electrochemcial reduction of CO to multi-carbon (C) products is an important but challenging task. Here, we report the control of structural evolution of two porous Cu(ii)-based materials (HKUST-1 and CuMOP, MOP = metal-organic polyhedra) under electrochemical conditions by adsorption of 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TNCQ) as an additional electron acceptor. The formation of Cu(i) and Cu(0) species during the structural evolution has been confirmed and analysed by powder X-ray diffraction, and by EPR, Raman, XPS, IR and UV-vis spectroscopies.

Evolution of bismuth-based metal-organic frameworks for efficient electroreduction of CO.

Understanding the structural and chemical changes that reactive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) undergo is crucial for the development of new efficient catalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO. Here, we describe three Bi(iii) materials, MFM-220, MFM-221 and MFM-222, which are constructed from the same ligand (biphenyl-3,3',5,5'-tetracarboxylic acid) but which show distinct porosity with solvent-accessible voids of 49.6%, 33.