Abstract

The main advantage of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) catalysts over other heterogeneous catalysts is that they can be designed to have reaction sites within molecularly well-defined and tunable structures to achieve high catalytic performance. In recent years, several types of metal-organic frameworks with copper(II) have been synthesized for a wide range of applications but there is still few reports for MOFs containing copper(I). Herein, the rod-like crystals SB-Cu1 were synthesized through coordination bonding of bbp ligand and CuI. Inside porous two-dimensional SB-Cu1 each Cu(I) center lies in a tetrahedral coordination sphere of pyridyl groups. This study demonstrates that SB-Cu1 with its desirable features: high porosity, open metal sites (Cu (I)) and benzimidazole (brønsted base) could play as a dual heterogeneous catalyst for C-N forming reactions to synthesize products in good to excellent yields(70–85%). In this work, ethanol as green solvent and a wide variety of imidazole, pyrrole, amine and aryl halide have been used for preparing products. Also, the MOF catalyst was recovered and reused at least five times without loss of activity.