Direct knitting boosts the stability and catalytic activity of NHC-Au complexes towards valorization of SO2 and CO2

Gold catalysis has been developed rapidly in recent decades, however, the instability of catalysts usually hampered their feasibility in various challenging transformations. Herein, a series of solid porous organometallic polymers (POMPs) were fabricated from N-heterocyclic carbene gold (NHC-Au) complexes via direct knitting strategy. Benefiting from the hierarchical porous structure, single-site and well-preserved catalytic centers of the POMPs, enhanced stability and catalytic activity were achieved in the sulfonylation reaction involving SO2 and carboxylative cyclization involving CO2. Moreover, the solids could be reused for more than 10 runs without obvious loss of activity and selectivity.