LAUSR

A nanosized Cu3(BTC)2 (HKUST-1; BTC = 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate) catalyst with a size range of 10–20 nm was synthesized with 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) as an effective competitive ligand and Lewis base to tune its morphology and improve its catalytic performance simultaneously. On the one hand, the addition of 2-MI can accelerate deprotonation of the bridging ligand H3BTC, thereby accelerating the rapid nucleation of crystals, which leads to a rapid decrease of the solution supersaturation and inhibits further growth of the nucleated small crystal, resulting in nanosized HKUST-1 crystals. On the other hand, the uncoordinated 2-MI in nano-HKUST-1 can improve the catalytic performance of the crystal because of its basicity. Further catalytic experiments demonstrate that nano-HKUST-1 showed high catalytic activity compared with bulk HKUST-1 in the controllable oxidation of styrene under solvent-free conditions. More importantly, both benzaldehydes and benzoic acids were successfully obtained via a facile var...