Metal–organic framework nanoparticles (nanoMOFs) have been widely studied in biomedical applications. Although substantial efforts have been devoted to the development of biocompatible approaches, the requirement of tedious synthetic steps, toxic reagents, and limitations on the shelf life of nanoparticles in solution are still significant barriers to their translation to clinical use. In this work, we propose a new postsynthetic modification of nanoMOFs with phosphate-functionalized methoxy polyethylene glycol (mPEG–PO₃) groups which, when combined with lyophilization, leads to the formation of redispersible solid materials. This approach can serve as a facile and general formulation method for the storage of bare or drug-loaded nanoMOFs. The obtained PEGylated nanoMOFs show stable hydrodynamic diameters, improved colloidal stability, and delayed drug-release kinetics compared to their parent nanoMOFs. Ex situ characterization and computational studies reveal that PEGylation of PCN-222 proceeds in a two-step fashion. Most importantly, the lyophilized, PEGylated nanoMOFs can be completely redispersed in water, avoiding common aggregation issues that have limited the use of MOFs in the biomedical field to the wet form—a critical limitation for their translation to clinical use as these materials can now be stored as dried samples. The in vitro performance of the addition of mPEG–PO₃ was confirmed by the improved intracellular stability and delayed drug-release capability, including lower cytotoxicity compared with that of the bare nanoMOFs. Furthermore, z-stack confocal microscopy images reveal the colocalization of bare and PEGylated nanoMOFs. This research highlights a facile PEGylation method with mPEG–PO₃, providing new insights into the design of promising nanocarriers for drug delivery.

The oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes or ketones is a highly relevant conversion for the pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries, and for biomass conversion, and is commonly performed using stoichiometric amounts of highly hazardous oxidants. The aerobic oxidation of alcohols with transition metal complex catalysts previously required complicated organic ligands and/or nitroxyl radicals as co-catalysts. Herein, we report an efficient and eco-friendly method to promote the aerobic oxidation of alcohols using an inorganic-ligand supported copper catalyst 1, (NH₄)₄[CuMo₆O₁₈(OH)₆], with O₂ (1 atm) as the sole oxidant. Catalyst 1 is synthesized directly from cheap and commonly available (NH₄)₆Mo₇O₂₄·4H₂O and CuSO₄, which consists of a pure inorganic framework built from a central Cu^II core supported by six Mo^VIO₆ inorganic scaffolds. The copper catalyst 1 exhibits excellent selectivity and activity towards a wide range of substrates in the catalytic oxidation of alcohols, and can avoid the use of toxic oxidants, nitroxyl radicals, and potentially air/moisture sensitive and complicated organic ligands that are not commercially available. Owing to its robust inorganic framework, catalyst 1 shows good stability and reusability, and the catalytic oxidation of alcohols with catalyst 1 could be readily scaled up to gram scale with little loss of catalytic activity, demonstrating great potential of the inorganic-ligand supported Cu catalysts in catalytic chemical transformations.