New Function of Metal–Organic Framework: Structurally Ordered Metal Promoter

The remarkable roles of metal promoters have been known for nearly a century, but it is still a challenge to find a suitable structure model to reveal the action mechanism behind metal promoters. Herein, a new function of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is developed as an ideal model to construct structurally ordered metal promoters by a targeted post‐modification strategy. MOFs as model not only favor clearing the real action mechanism behind metal promoters, but also can anchor one or multiple kinds of metal promoters especially noble metal promoters. Typically, the as‐prepared Pd/bpy‐UiO‐Cu catalysts show high selectivity (>99%) toward 4‐nitrophenylethane in 4‐nitrostyrene hydrogenation, mainly due to the enhanced interaction between Pd nanoparticles and MOF carriers induced by Cu promoters, thus inhibiting the hydrogenation of 4‐nitrophenylethane. This strategy with flexibility and universality will open up a new route to synthesize efficient catalysts with structurally ordered metal promoters. A targeted post‐modification strategy is developed to anchor dozen kinds of metal ions into metal–organic framework composites as structurally ordered metal promoters, which not only contributes to constructing ideal catalyst models for elucidating action mechanism of metal promoters during the catalytic process, but also provides a universal method to synthesize high‐efficiency catalysts.