Synthesis of Densely Packaged, Ultrasmall Pt02Clusters within a Thioether-Functionalized MOF: Catalytic Activity in Industrial Reactions at Low Temperature

The gram-scale synthesis, stabilization, and characterization of well-defined ultrasmall subnanometric catalytic clusters on solids is a challenge. The chemical synthesis and X-ray snapshots of Pt02clusters, homogenously distributed and densely packaged within the channels of a metal–organic framework, is presented. This hybrid material catalyzes efficiently, and even more importantly from an economic and environmental viewpoint, at low temperature (25 to 140 °C), energetically costly industrial reactions in the gas phase such as HCN production, CO2methanation, and alkene hydrogenations. These results open the way for the design of precisely defined catalytically active ultrasmall metal clusters in solids for technically easier, cheaper, and dramatically less-dangerous industrial reactions.