Implantation of Iron(III) in porphyrinic metal organic frameworks for highly improved photocatalytic performance

Herein a simple approach is proposed to greatly improve the photocatalytic performance of a porphyrinic metal organic framework (PCN-224) by implantation of coordinatively unsaturated Fe(III) sites into the porphyrin unit. Taking the photooxidation of isopropanol (IPA) as a model reaction, the newly developed [email protected] exhibits significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity, which is equivalent to an 8.9-fold improvement in acetone evolution rate and 9.3-fold enhancements in CO2 generation rate compared with the PCN-224. Mechanism investigation reveals that the presence of Fe(III) sites in the PCN-224 can not only greatly boost the electron–hole separation efficiency, but also effectively convert the in-situ photogenerated inactive H2O2 into reactive oxygen-related radicals via Fenton reactions to participate in the photocatalytic IPA oxidation. The enhanced photocatalytic activity for IPA oxidation is also observed over another Fe(III) implanted porphyrinic metal organic framework ([email protected]), suggesting the generality of this strategy.