Construction of Interpenetrated Ruthenium Metal–Organic Frameworks as Stable Photocatalysts for CO2 Reduction

Poor stability has long been a major obstacle to the practical applications of metal–organic framework (MOF) photocatalysts. This problem can be overcome by the use of structural interpenetration. In this work, by modifying Ru metalloligands, we have rationally designed two Ru–polypyridine based MOFs (with non-interpenetrated and interpenetrated structures, respectively), both of which exhibit similar photocatalytic activities for CO2 photoreduction. Remarkably, the interpenetrated Ru-MOF possesses good photocatalytic durability and recyclability, and shows much higher thermal and photic stability in comparison with its non-interpenetrated counterpart. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the stability of MOF photocatalysts was improved by using structural interpenetration.