Metal-Organic Framework Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide Conversion into Value-Added Chemicals

Abstract

One important challenge in addressing climate change and ensuring sustainable chemical production is the efficient conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added chemicals. Traditional catalytic systems have low selectivity, low stability, and high energy consumption. In this regard, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have become attractive catalysts due to their large surface area, easily tunable pore structures, and active sites. This research examines the catalytic properties of selected MOF-based catalysts for the conversion of CO2 into commercially viable products, including methanol, formic acid, and cyclic carbonates. The systematic synthesis of MOFs with custom metal nodes and functionalized organic linkers will be used as the methodology, and the structure of the synthesized product will be characterized by XRD, BET, and FTIR analyses. The degree of catalytic activity was determined under mild operating conditions (1-10 bar, 25-80 °C), and the reaction kinetics were quantitatively studied. These findings show CO2 conversion efficiencies of 62-78%, and the selectivities of targeted reactions of products are above 85 %. The MOF systems had a 30-45% higher turnover frequency than conventional heterogeneous catalysts, with a high catalytic activity of over 90% in 10 reaction cycles, indicating that they are highly structurally stable and reusable. It also led to a 25% decrease in energy consumption due to lower operating temperatures. These data point to the great promise of MOF catalysts as remarkable tools for enabling the efficient, selective, and scalable utilization of CO2. To sum up, the MOF-based catalysis platform has a promising future in advancing sustainable technologies for carbon capture and conversion, which will help create low-carbon chemical processes and closed carbon economies.