Heteropoly acid encapsulated into zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) cage as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for Friedel–Crafts acylation

Abstract A new strategy has been developed for the encapsulation of the phosphotungstic heteropoly acid (H3PW12O40 denoted as PTA) into zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) cage and the PTA@ZIF-67(ec) catalysts with different PTA content were prepared. The structure of the catalysts was characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, FT-IR, ICP-AES and TG. The catalytic activity and recovery properties of the catalysts for the Friedel-Crafts acylation of anisole with benzoyl chloride were evaluated. The results showed that 14.6–31.7 wt% PTA were encapsulated in the ZIF-67 cage. The PTA@ZIF-67(ec) catalysts had good catalytic activity for Friedel-Crafts acylation. The conversion of anisole can reach ~100% and the selectivity of the production can reach ~94% over 26.5 wt% PTA@ZIF-67(ec) catalyst under the reaction condition of 120 °C and 6 h. After reaction, the catalyst can be easily separated from the reaction mixture by the centrifugation. The recovered catalyst can be reused five times and the selectivity can be kept over 90%.