Catalytic activity of a reusable polymer-anchored nickel(II)-phenanthroline complex on the oxidation of various organic substrates

A polymer-anchored nickel(II)phenanthroline complex [polyNi(II)phen] was synthesized and used effectively as a reusable catalyst in various oxidation reactions in the presence of tert-butylhydroperoxide as an oxidant in acetonitrile medium. The catalyst was characterized with elemental analysis, atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and spectrometric methods such as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The study of the effects of the time, temperature, oxidant, catalyst concentration, molar ratio of substrate to oxidant, and solvent in the oxidation of styrene individually gave the optimized reaction conditions. Under optimized conditions, the catalyst exhibited good conversions for the oxidation reactions of various olefins, alkanes, aromatic alcohols, and thioethers. The catalyst was easily recovered by simple filtration and reused for more than five times with consistent catalytic activity. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 123: 3789-3798, 2012