Polymer immobilized tantalum(v)-amino acid complexes as selective and recyclable heterogeneous catalysts for oxidation of olefins and sulfides with aqueous H2O2

Polymer supported heterogeneous peroxotantalum(v) catalysts were prepared by anchoring Ta(v)-diperoxo species to chloromethylated poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) resin functionalized with amino acids asparagine (l-Asn) and arginine (l-Arg). The structurally well-defined catalysts, [Ta(O-2)(2)(L)(2)](-)-MR, [L = asparagine (catalyst 1) or arginine (catalyst 2) and MR = Merrifield resin], were comprehensively characterized by elemental analysis (CHN, ICP-OES, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), spectral studies (FT-IR, Raman, C-13 NMR, diffuse reflectance UV-vis and XPS), SEM, XRD, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The supported peroxotantalum (pTa) compounds displayed excellent catalytic performance in epoxidation of alkenes with 30% H2O2, under solvent free reaction conditions. Styrene was epoxidized with >99% selectivity with the highest TOF of 1040 h(-1) obtained within 30 min reaction time, whereas the TOF for norbornene epoxidation was 2000 h(-1) within 1 h with >95% epoxide selectivity. Furthermore, the immobilized catalysts facilitated chemoselective oxidation of a broad range of organic sulfides to the desired sulfoxides with H2O2 in methanol, under mild reaction conditions. The oxidations proceeded with a high H2O2 efficiency percentage and are amenable to ready scalability. The heterogeneous catalysts could be easily recovered and reused for several consecutive catalytic cycles with undiminished activity/selectivity profiles in all cases. The developed catalytic strategies are operationally simple and, being free from halogenated solvent or any other toxic auxiliaries, environmentally clean.