Anchoring of a terpyridine-based Mo(VI) complex on manganese ferrite as a recoverable catalyst for epoxidation of olefins under solvent-free conditions

A magnetically separable heterogeneous nanocatalyst was obtained by anchoring a terpyridine-based Mo(VI) complex on modified MnFe2O4 nanoparticles and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopies (DRS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The catalytic activity of the supported molybdenum based catalyst was evaluated in the selective epoxidation of various olefins (cyclooctene, limonene, 1-dodecane, 1-heptene, styrene, 1-indene, alpha-pinene, cyclohexene) with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an oxidant under solvent-free conditions. This nanocatalyst was easily separated by using an external magnetic field and reused consecutively at least five times with no significant loss in selectivity and catalytic activity. The short reaction time, simple preparation, high conversion, good physicochemical stability and magnetic recycling of the catalysts are beneficial.

Automated summary

This study developed a magnetically separable heterogeneous nanocatalyst by anchoring a terpyridine-based Mo(VI) complex on modified MnFe2O4 nanoparticles, which can be used for solvent-free selective epoxidation of various olefins. The catalyst showed benefits such as short reaction time, simple preparation, high stability, and magnetic recyclability.