Their complex surface chemistry and high oxygen lattice mobilities
place mixed-metal oxides among the most important families of materials. Modulation of stoichiometry in mixed-metal oxides has been
shown to be a very powerful tool for tuning optical and catalytic
properties. However, accessing different stoichiometries is not
always synthetically possible. Here, we show that the thermal
decomposition of the recently reported metal-organic framework
MUV-101(Fe, Ti) results in the formation of carbon-supported titanomaghemite nanoparticles with an unprecedented Fe/Ti ratio
close to 2, not achievable by soft-chemistry routes. The resulting titanomaghemite phase displays outstanding catalytic activity for the
production of CO from CO2 via the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS)
reaction with CO selectivity values of ca. 100% and no signs of deactivation after several days on stream. Theoretical calculations suggest that the reaction proceeds through the formation of COOH*
species, favoring in this way CO over other byproducts.