Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are additionally allude to porous coordination polymers (PCPs), are crystalline compounds with extortionate porosity and they have recently attracted paramount interest for use in gas storage, separation, drug delivery, sensing, and catalysis 1.
MOFs can be used in many different applications because of their distinctive tunable structures, extortionate porosities and purposeful sites that makes them unique 2. These extraordinary materials are formed by way of the self-assembly of metal-ions bridged by utilizing organic ligands to shape crystalline solids. Different metal ions and organic linkers can be utilized to synthesize MOFs and this makes them tunable for different purposes. These materials are versatile, and they have attracted many researchers to design the ideal porous materials for each unique applications 3.
Other reasons for this attraction in MOFs research is their ability to amalgamate the benefits of each homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. MOFs have great capabilities to be utilized in catalysis Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs) are incipient emerging subordinate class of metal organic frameworks (MOFs), which have a zeolite-like structure and properties. ZIF materials are mainly composed of transition metal ions like Zn2+ and Co2+ and imidazolate linkers 5. These materials have received sizeable attention because of their unique and highly desired properties that they possess like high surface area, high crystallinity, great chemical robustness, thermal stabilities and abundant functionalities 6. ZIFs hold immense promise in many different applications and fields like in gas storage and separation, Biomedicine, chemical sensing, catalysis and water treatment 7.
During synthesis of ZIFs, the type of imidazolate (linker) and the solvent that is utilized have a great influence on the structure that is obtained. The imidazolate linker can additionally be functionalized to achieve ZIFs with desired functionality for a concrete applications 8. Amongst the studied ZIFs, ZIF-8 is one of the most studied ZIFs because it is facile to synthesize and it is reproducible and it is composed of Zn2+ ions and 2-methylimidazolate (MeIm) which results in the Sodalite topology (SOD)
