Manganese(III) porphyrin supported on multi-wall carbon nanotubes: A highly efficient and reusable biomimetic catalyst for epoxidation of alkenes with sodium periodate

In this paper, the biomimetic epoxidation of alkenes catalyzed by tetrakis(p-aminophenyl)porphyrinatomanganese(III) chloride, [Mn(TNH2PP)Cl], supported on functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes, MWCNT, is reported. The catalyst, [Mn(TNH2PP)Cl-MWCNT], was used as an efficient and heterogeneous catalyst for epoxidation of alkenes with NaIO4 at room temperature, in the presence of imidazole as an axial ligand. This new heterogenized catalyst was characterized by elemental analysis, FT IR spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The biggest advantage of Mn(TNH2PP)Cl-MWCNT is its high reusability in the oxidation reactions, in which the catalyst was reused several times without significant loss of its catalytic activity. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.