Cobalt salophen complex supported on imidazole functionalized magnetic nanoparticles as a recoverable catalyst for oxidation of alkenes

• A new magnetic catalyst consisting of Co(II) salophen complex was prepared.
• The catalyst was shown to be an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of alkenes.
• The catalyst could be easily isolated from the product by magnetic decantation.
• The catalyst is reused 5 times without a significant loss of activity.

A new magnetically separable catalyst consisting of Co(II) salophen complex covalently supported on imidazole functionalized silica coated cobalt ferrite was prepared. The synthesized catalyst was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). The immobilized catalyst was shown to be an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the oxidation of some alkenes using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as oxidant. The catalyst could be easily and efficiently isolated from the final product solution by magnetic decantation and be reused for 5 consecutive reactions without showing any significant activity degradation.