Zeolite encapsulated Ru(III), Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes of benzimidazole as reusable catalysts for the oxidation of organic substrates

Ru(III), Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes of benzimidazole (BzlH) have been synthesized in the supercages of zeolite-Y by the flexible ligand method and were characterized by spectroscopic (IR, UV-Vis and ESR) studies, XRD and thermogravimetric analysis, surface area, and pore volume measurements. The zeolite encapsulated complexes catalyzed the oxidation of ethylbenzene, benzoin, and cyclohexanol. Various parameters, such as concentration of oxidant and catalyst, reaction time, temperature of the reaction and type of solvents have been optimized to obtain the maximum transformation of ethylbenzene to a mixture of acetophenone, benzaldehyde and styrene. Under the optimized reaction conditions, [Ru(BzlH)]-Y gave 80.4 % conversion of ethylbenzene in 1 h. All these zeolite encapsulated complexes were more selective towards acetophenone formation. Oxidation of benzoin catalyzed by [Cu(BzlH)]-Y, [Ru(BzlH)]-Y and [Zn(BzlH)]-Y encapsulated complexes resulted in 75.5, 78.7 and 59.9 % conversion respectively to give benzaldehyde as exclusive product. A maximum conversion of 39.1 % cyclohexanol with [Cu(BzlH)]-Y was achieved to give cyclohexanone. The activity of neat complexes towards these reactions was also carried out. The encapsulated catalysts were significantly more active than neat complexes and recyclable without much loss in catalytic activity.