Epoxidation of olefins with aqueous hydrogen peroxide in the presence of molybdenum acetylacetonate-bis(tri-n-butyltin)oxide.

Abstract

The epoxidation of olefins with 28% aqueous hydrogen peroxide was investigated. A catalyst system composed of MoO2 (acac)2 and (n-Bu3Sn)2O selectively gave 72-12% yields of epoxides from olefins such as cyclohexene, styrene and 1-octene in an isopropyl alcohol solvent at 50°C for 24 h. The epoxidation rates were first order with respect to cyclohexene and zero order with respect to H2O2. An apparent activation energy of 10 kcal·mol-1 and an entropy of activation of -53 eu. were obtained. MoO2 (n-Bu3SnO)2 is proposed to be the active species for the epoxidation.