In the present work, an unsymmetrical salen-type ruthenium(III) complex, Ru(salenac)Cl, where the unsymmetrical tetradentate Schiff base H2salenac = salicylideneiminoethyliminopentane-2-one, was synthesized and anchored on the surface of aminopropyl-functionalized silica-coated γ-Fe2O3 magnetic nanoparticles. The characterization of the resulting γ-Fe2O3@SiO2@APTES@Ru(salenac)Cl nanoparticles was performed using XRD, FT-IR, VSM, TGA, ICP, TEM, BET, SEM and EDX methods. The prepared γ-Fe2O3@SiO2@APTES@Ru(salenac)Cl magnetic nanoparticle was successfully employed as an efficient heterogeneous nanocatalyst for alkenes epoxidation and alkanes oxidation with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tert-BuOOH, 70 % aqueous solution) as oxidant in acetonitrile at ambient temperature. In the mentioned catalytic system, the intended products were obtained with good to excellent yields along with high selectivity. The heterogeneous γ-Fe2O3@SiO2@APTES@Ru(salenac)Cl nanocatalyst can be recovered easily using an external magnet and recycled six times with no notable decrease in catalytic activity. Moreover, FT-IR, XRD, SEM and EDX techniques were used to characterize the recovered γ-Fe2O3@SiO2@APTES@Ru(salenac)Cl nanocatalyst and it was demonstrated that the catalyst maintained its structure intact following the recovery process.
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