Highly active and reusable organometallic catalysts covalently bonded to an ordered mesoporous polymer

A novel class of heterogenized organometallic catalysts was synthesized by chelating various metallic ions with neutral coordinate phosphine oxide ligands incorporated into the network of a phenol-formaldehyde resin with ordered mesoporous structure and used in a variety of water-medium organic reactions. The as-prepared M-NCP-MPs catalysts (M = Pd ²⁺, Au ⁺, Rh ⁺ and Ni ²⁺) exhibited comparable activity and selectivity with their corresponding homogeneous catalysts owing to the large surface area, ordered mesopore channels, uniform distribution of active sites, and strong surface hydrophobicity, which facilitated the adsorption of organic reactants, especially in aqueous solution. More importantly, these catalysts showed excellent durability and could be used repetitively even in alkaline media owing to the strong stability against alkaline corrosion.