Study on the epoxidation of olefins with H2O2 catalyzed by biquaternary ammonium phosphotungstic acid

Abstract

Selective epoxidation of olefins is an important field in chemical industry. In this work, we developed a new phosphotungstic acid catalyst {[(C8H17)(CH3)2N]2(CH2)3}1.5{PO4[WO(O2)2]4} with long carbon chain and biquaternary ammonium cation. Cyclohexene could be epoxidized to cyclohexene oxide in 96.3% conversion and 98.2% selectivity. The catalyst type, solvent type, catalyst loading, initial molar ratio, temperature, cycle performance and substrate extensibility were studied and optimized, the kinetic parameters about overall reaction and unit reaction were also calculated. Dynamic light scattering analysis was carried out to explain the different catalytic performance between catalysts with different carbon chain length. This novel catalyst and the corresponding dynamics and mechanism study could probably help the industrial application on the epoxidation of cyclohexene with H2O2.