Silica-supported, single-site titanium catalysts for olefin epoxidation. A molecular precursor strategy for control of catalyst structure

A molecular precursor approach involving simple grafting procedures was used to produce siteisolated titanium-supported epoxidation catalysts of high activity and selectivity. The tris(tert-butoxy)siloxy titanium complexes Ti[OSi((OBu)-Bu-t)(3)](4) (TiSi4), ((PrO)-Pr-i)Ti[OSi((OBu)-Bu-t)(3)](3) (TiSi3), and ((BuO)-Bu-t)(3)TiOSi((OBu)-Bu-t)(3) (TiSi) react with the hydroxyl groups of amorphous Aerosil, mesoporous MCM-41, and SBA-15 via loss of (HOBu)-Bu-t and/or HOSi((OBu)-Bu-t)(3) and introduction of titanium species onto the silica surface. Powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption/desorption, infrared, and diffuse reflectance ultraviolet spectroscopies were used to investigate the structures and chemical natures of the surface-bound titanium species. The titanium species exist mainly in isolated, tetrahedral coordination environments. Increasing the number of siloxide ligands in the molecular precursor decreases the amount of titanium that can be introduced this way, but also enhances the catalytic activity and selectivity for the epoxidation of cyclohexene with cumene hydroperoxide as oxidant. In addition, the high surface area mesoporous silicas (MCM-41 and SBA-15) are more effective than amorphous silica as supports for these catalysts. Supporting TiSi3 on the SBA-15 affords highly active cyclohexene epoxidation catalysts (0.25-1.77 wt % Ti loading) that provide turnover frequencies (TOFs) of 500-1500 h(-1) after 1 h (TOFs are reduced by about half after calcination). These results demonstrate that oxygen-rich siloxide complexes of titanium are useful as precursors to supported epoxidation catalysts.