Direct aerobic liquid phase epoxidation of propylene catalyzed by Mn(III) porphyrin under mild conditions: evidence for the existence of both peroxide and Mn(IV)-oxo species from in situ characterizations

Generally, gaseous propylene is hard to oxidize directly in liquid phase by dioxygen under mild conditions. Here, the liquid phase epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide (PO) using molecular oxygen catalyzed by manganese porphyrins (MnTPPCl) in the presence of benzaldehyde was developed. Manganese(III) porphyrin exhibited excellent activity for the selective oxidation of propylene under mild conditions. The conversion of propylene and selectivity towards PO can reach 38% and 80%, respectively. The turnover frequency (TOF) of MnTPPCl catalyst reached 1840 h(-1). Experiment evidences that the generation of peroxide and Mn(IV) oxo species during propylene epoxidation occurred, which was confirmed by in situ IR, in situ UV and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF- MS). On the basis of the experimental results, the mechanism for the epoxidation of propylene in the presence of metalloporphyrins and benzaldehyde with dioxygen was proposed. The mechanism is also supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.