An environmentally benign route for epichlorohydrin from allyl chloride epoxidation catalyzed by heteropolyphosphatotungstate

Abstract

In the absence of organic solvent, allyl chloride was epoxidized with aqueous hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by a heteropolyphosphatotungstate catalyst with very good activity and recycling activity. Under optimized conditions, an epichlorohydrin yield of 88.7% was achieved in the first run; after two recycles, the epichlorohydrin yield remained still above 85.0%. Various factors affecting the catalytic reaction were investigated systematically. The reaction rate of hydrogen peroxide in the epoxidation of allyl chloride is zero order with respect to hydrogen peroxide. The activation energy is 52.27 kJ/mol.