Polystyrene encapsulation of manganese porphyrins: highly efficient catalysts for oxidation of olefins

Metalloporphyrins (MPs) of manganese have been successfully encapsulated for the first time in polystyrene matrix. The manganese porphyrins have been anchored onto polymer on the basis of physical envelopment by the polystyrene fibers, rendering them highly dispersible in common organic solvents. These polystyrene supported catalysts are characterized by UV-Vis and diffuse reflectance FT-IR spectroscopy. These encapsulated catalysts (MCMPs) exhibit enhanced activity for oxidation of alkenes in the presence of NaIO4, KHSO5 and NaOCl as oxidants. These catalysts not only possess high turnover frequencies but they are found to be quite stable and could be recovered quantitatively by simple filtration and reused without loss of activity.