Chemically Modulated Synthesis of UiO-66(X) for Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation of Cinnamaldehyde

It is of great significance to produce allylic alcohols, a fundamental intermediates in industrial organic synthesis, through hydrogenation of alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes. The development of catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) to improve reaction selectivity is critical and still a major challenge. In this work, we used UiO-66 as precursor, hydrochloric acid and monocarboxylic acid as modulators to synthesized a series of materials named UiO-66(X). A deep investigation into the influence of modulators on the composition, morphology, and physical structure of UiO-66(X) was presented. Most importantly, the UiO-66(TFA) with continuous Zr-O-Zr sites as active centers both realized high conversion of cinnamaldehyde and excellent selectivity to cinnamyl alcohol (97 %) in the CTH of cinnamaldehyde and possessed good reusability and chemical stability.