A Rational Strategy To Construct a Neutral Boron Imidazolate Framework with Encapsulated Small-Size Au–Pd Nanoparticles for Catalysis

A series of 3D neutral boron imidazolate
frameworks (BIFs) with octahedral metal centers were synthesized based
on the charge-balancing principle. Au–Pd nanoparticles (NPs)
with a mean size of 2.12 nm were then successfully obtained and encapsulated
in these BIF structures through the simultaneous reduction of Au3+/Pd3+ ions by B–H bonds of tridentate boron
ligands. The very small sizes of these Au–Pd NPs are attributed
to the pore confinement effect of BIFs. This work not only brings
new methodology for the construction of neutral BIFs but also suggests
a new strategy for loading smaller-sized bimetallic NPs into BIFs.