Multi-walled carbon nanotube bound nickel Schiff-base complexes as reusable catalysts for oxidation of alcohols

Nickel salen and salophen complexes have been covalently anchored on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The MWNT-supported nickel complexes have been characterized by inductive coupled plasma spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The catalytic performance for the oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols was evaluated using periodic acid as oxidant. Reaction conditions have been optimized for MWNT-supported salen and salophen complexes by considering the effect of parameters such as solvent, reaction time, concentration of catalyst, amount of oxidant, etc. The catalytic activity was higher for supported catalysts than similar homogeneous ones. These supported catalysts were highly stable and reused several times without the loss of catalytic activity.