Assembly of SBA‐15 Derived Hybrid Heterogeneous Catalysts for Liquid Phase Cyclopentene Epoxidation

Abstract

AbstractThree two‐dimensional SBA‐15‐based hybrid materials, SBA‐15‐ImCl‐PF6, SBA‐15‐NH(PO3H2), and SBA‐15‐N+, were synthesized employing a post‐synthetic functionalization strategy, and peroxo‐W and PW species were successfully immobilized on the surface of the corresponding organic moieties‐modified SBA‐15 via electrostatic interaction or covalent linking. The TEM and XRD results presented that the structure and morphology of SBA‐15 were maintained after multiple transformations. The final catalysts SBA‐15‐ImCl‐PF6‐W, SBA‐15‐NH(PO3H2)‐W, and SBA‐15‐N+(PW4O24)3− all showed considerable activity for the epoxidation of cyclopentene to cyclopentene oxide using H2O2 as the oxygen source without any co‐solvent. It was noteworthy that SBA‐15‐ImCl‐PF6‐W catalyst with increased hydrophobicity via altering counteranions of imisazolium ions exhibited excellent cyclopentene oxide selectivity (99 %), but a good cycle performance (10 times) was achieved via SBA‐15‐NH(PO3H2)‐W owing robust covalent bonds. Besides, the use of a low dose of heterogeneous catalyst (W=20 μmol) and a green oxidant of H2O2, along with the absence of co‐solvent or other additives make cyclopentene epoxidation reaction an environmenttally benign chemical process.