The invention concerns a method for manufacturing of an electrocatalyst comprising a porous carbon support material, a catalytic material in the form of at least one type of metal, and macrocyclic compounds chemically bound to the carbon support and capable of forming complexes with single metal ions of said metal or metals, said method comprising the steps of: i) providing a template capable of acting as pore structure directing agent during formation of a highly porous electrically conducting templated carbon substrate, ii) mixing the template with one or several precursor substances of the catalytic material, the macrocyclic compounds and carbon, iii) exposing the mixture of the template and the precursor substances to a carbonization process during which the precursors react and transform the mixture into a carbonized template composite in winch the carbon part of the composite is chemically bound to macrocyclic compounds present in complexes with the metal or metals. The invention also concerns an electrocatalyst for electrochemical reactions, a method for manufacturing of a membrane electrode assembly using such an electrocatalyst and to a fuel cell making use of such an electrocatalyst.

The present invention relates to the field of polymerisation catalysts, and systems comprising these catalysts for polymerising carbon dioxide and an epoxide, a lactide and/or lactone, and/or an epoxide and an anhydride. The catalyst is of formula (I):

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wherein at least one of M.sub.1 or M.sub.2 is selected from Ni(II) and Ni(III)-X. A process for the reaction of carbon dioxide with an epoxide; an epoxide and an anhydride; and/or a lactide and/or a lactone in the presence of the catalyst is also described.

The present invention relates to a catalyst for transfer hydrogenation, which is formed of a metal-organic framework having an MOF-808 based X-ray diffraction pattern. A high crystalline porous MOF-808 based metal-organic framework exhibits excellent performance in the transfer hydrogenation of ethyl levulinate (EL) at high and low temperature.

Methods for the borylation of aromatic compounds using cobalt catalysts are provided.

Metal-organic framework (MOFs) compositions based on postsynthetic metalation of secondary building unit (SBU) terminal or bridging OH or OH.sub.2 groups with metal precursors or other post-synthetic manipulations are described. The MOFs provide a versatile family of recyclable and reusable single-site solid catalysts for catalyzing a variety of asymmetric organic transformations, including the regioselective boryiation and siiylation of benzyiic CH bonds, the hydrogenation of aikenes, imines, carbonyls, nitroarenes, and heterocycles, hydroboration, hydrophosphination, and cyclization reactions. The solid catalysts can also be integrated into a flow reactor or a supercritical fluid reactor.

A titanium catalyst and a synthesizing method of polyester resins are provided in the present disclosure. The titanium catalyst has a chemical structure represented by Formula (I), Formula (II) or Formula (III). ##STR00001##
The symbols shown in the Formula (I), the Formula (II) or the Formula (III) are defined in the description. The synthesizing method of polyester resins includes providing the titanium catalyst, performing a feeding step, performing a heating and pressurizing step and performing a heating and vacuuming step. The titanium catalyst and a heat stabilizer are added into an autoclave before the feeding step or before the heating and vacuuming step.

Described herein are compositions composed of frustrated Lewis pairs impregnated in porous materials such as, for example, metal-organic frameworks, and their uses thereof. These compositions may allow new applications of frustrated Lewis pairs in catalysis by sequestering and protecting the frustrated Lewis pair within the nanospace of the porous material. Also provided are methods of hydrogenating an organic compound having at least one unsaturated functional group comprising using the compositions described herein.

The present invention relates to a covalent organic framework which is a two-dimensional polymer formed by repeatedly arranging structural units represented by formula I or formula II and bonding same by means of covalent bonds. The present invention also relates to a catalyst, preparation methods for the covalent organic framework and the catalyst, and applications of the covalent organic framework and the catalyst in catalyzing olefin polymerization. The covalent organic framework can be used as a support to control the stereoregular polymerization of olefins in a confined space. The catalyst has high catalytic activity and good high-temperature stability, and widens the range of types of olefin polymerization catalysts.

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Provided are methods of making a MOF UiO-66 comprising reacting zirconium oxychloride with terephthalic acid or derivative thereof and acetic acid in a solvent to provide a reaction solution; diluting the reaction solution with water, heating the diluted reaction solution and reducing the reaction temperature of the reaction mixture to provide the MOF UiO-66 having a micropore volume greater than or equal to 0.45 cc/g and a crystal size of between about 20 nm and about 1000 nm. Also provided are methods of making a MOF UiO-66 where a zirconium hydroxide acetate and zirconium hydroxide are reacted with a carboxylic acid or derivative thereof and acetic acid in a solvent to produce the metal-organic framework MOF UiO-66 having a micropore volume at least 0.35 cc/gram.

A composition of a photocatalyst, a method of manufacturing the photocatalyst, and a method of chemically reducing carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide using the photocatalyst under visible-light irradiation is provided. The photocatalyst comprises a transition metal ion and graphitic carbon nitride and includes single metal sites on carbon nitride. Under visible light, the metal sites that are coordinated to nitrogen atoms get activated, without the use of additional ligands, to catalyze the reduction of carbon dioxide to selectively produce carbon monoxide. The photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide is highly efficient, resulting a turnover number of more than 800 for carbon monoxide production in 2 hours. The composition is useful in converting carbon dioxide into useful chemicals and carbon-based fuels. A functional model of molecular catalysts for efficient carbon dioxide reduction is also present.