Silica-metalloporphyrins hybrid materials: preparation and catalysis to hydroxylate cyclohexane with molecular oxygen

Three types of novel silica-metalloporphyrins hybrid materials, Si-S-APTCPPFe, Si-S-APTCPPMn and Si-S-APTCPPCo, were prepared at room temperature by sol-gel method involving a thiol-ene polymerization reaction of 5-(4-allyloxy)phenyl-10,15,20-tri(4-chlorophenyl)porphyrin (APTCPP) with 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS). The hybrid materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, UV-Vis and TG, and were investigated as catalysts for the aerobic oxidation of cyclohexane. It is found that these hybrid materials are more efficient catalysts than the analogous non-supported metalloporphyrins for cyclohexane hydroxylation in metalloporphyrin-O-2-ascrobate system and the metal ion in the porphyrins significantly affected the catalytic efficiencies of these hybrid materials.