A comparative study of the regioselective ring opening of styrene oxide with aniline over several types of mesoporous silica materials

Abstract

In this study, three different mesoporous silica materials, i.e. rice husk ash, RHA-MCM-41 and commercial silica gel were employed as catalyst to study the styrene oxide ring opening with aniline to form β-amino alcohols. RHA-MCM-41 with a high surface area of 1115m2g−1 was prepared from rice husk silica using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a structure directing agent via a simple sol–gel method at 80°C. The TEM image showed a typical MCM-41 structure with the pore size and pore wall thickness of 2.32 and 1.87nm, respectively. The catalytic activity of these catalysts resulted in a conversion of 95% and a selectivity of 94% for isomer I. Aromatic solvents were found to be more effective compared to non aromatic and polar solvents for the reaction.