FeII-MOFs Catalyze the High Selective Oxidation of Sulfides Induced by Visible Light.

In this article, two new three-dimensional (3D) FeII-MOFs (1 and 2) were successfully constructed, which can be employed as efficient heterogeneous photocatalysts in the product-selective oxidation of sulfides achieved by using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as the green oxidant. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations proved that MOF 1 has higher catalytic activity than MOF 2. As an efficient visible light-induced heterogeneous photocatalyst, MOF 1 displays superior photocatalytic activity in the product-selective oxidation of sulfides using H2O2. The oxidation products were sulfones when the reaction occurred in methanol (MeOH), and the oxidation products switched to sulfoxides when a small amount of water was added to the reaction system. Furthermore, the excellent catalytic activity of MOF 1 is well maintained even after 5 cycles and the plausible photocatalytic mechanism was investigated systematically. In the study of MOF photocatalytic, MOF 1 is the first MOF photocatalyst for efficient and selective transformation of sulfides into sulfones and sulfoxides using H2O2 under mild conditions.