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

Abstract

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, α-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.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Epoxidation
• olefins
• molybdenum
• magnetically
• MnFe₂O₄

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.