Heterogenization of molecular catalysts within porous solids: the case of Ni-catalyzed ethylene oligomerization from zeolites to metal–organic frameworks

The last decade has seen a tremendous expansion of the field of heterogenized molecular catalysis, especially with the growing interest in metal–organic frameworks and related porous hybrid solids. With successful achievements in the transfer from molecular homogeneous catalysis to heterogenized processes come the necessary discussions on methodologies used and a critical assessment on the advantages of heterogenizing molecular catalysis. Here we use the example of nickel-catalyzed ethylene oligomerization, a reaction of both fundamental and applied interest, to review heterogenization methodologies of well-defined molecular catalysts within porous solids while addressing the biases in the comparison between original molecular systems and heterogenized counterparts.