Carboxylic acid-functionalized phosphovanadomolybdate-paired ionic polymer as a green heterogeneous catalyst for hydroxylation of benzene

A novel PMoV-paired ionic polymer was prepared by anion-exchange of a newly task-specific designed carboxylic acid-functionalized ionic polymer with a Keggin V-containing heteropolyacid, and characterized by FT-IR, SEM, TG, XRD,H-1 NMR, and CNH elemental analysis. Its catalytic performance for hydroxylation of benzene with H2O2 was studied using CH3CN as solvent. The obtained polymer is revealed to be a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst for hydroxylation of benzene, showing a high yield to phenol 26.9% with 100% selectivity. The solid catalyst has a convenient recoverability with a considerable catalyst recovery rate of above 90%, and the reused catalyst in the fourth run showed a phenol yield of 17.8%. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.