A New Chiral Catalytic Ceramic Membrane Reactor and Its Use in Catalyzing Epoxidation of Styrene

Abstract

A new chiral salen-Mn catalytic ceramic membrane reactor was constructed by two steps. Firstly, the ceramic membrane was modified by grafting 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Secondly, the Jacobsen type salen-Mn(III) catalyst was immobilized onto the modified ceramic membranes through chemical bonding of metal centers of the catalyst and amino-groups on the membrane. The catalytic performances of the reactor were investigated by asymmetric epoxidation of styrene, and 25.2% conversion rate and 31.6% ee value were obtained while the mol ratio of catalyst/styrene was 0.121%. The stability of the obtained reactor was tested by catalyzing four runs of epoxidation reactions. The reactor can reuse the catalyst directly without any separation operation.