Vanadium oxides anchored on nitrogen-incorporated carbon: An efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the selective oxidation of sulfide to sulfoxide

Abstract

A highly efficient and durable metal catalyst stabilized by proper support is vital for organic catalytic transformations. In this study, a sequential pyrolysis–acid etching strategy was reported to prepare a nitrogen-rich nanocarbon inlaid with vanadium oxide catalyst (V@CN-750), which was evolved from the preassembly of a chitin−V precursor. V@CN-750 exhibited excellent activity and selectivity of 96% and 98%, respectively, for catalytic oxidation of thioanisole to sulfoxide at 40 °C for 8 h, which is considerably superior to that of V2O5 nanoparticles and homogeneous VO(acac)2. Moreover, V@CN-750 can be recycled at least eight times without affecting its catalytic performance.