Manganese (III) salen immobilized on montmorillonite as biomimetic alkene epoxidation and alkane hydroxylation catalyst with sodium periodate

In the present work, an account of biomimetic oxidation, the water-soluble Mn(III) salen containing phosphonium groups was immobilized into cationic clay montmorillonite. The compound was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, UV–Vis, SEM and thermal analysis. The results showed that this heterogeneous catalyst exhibits significant catalytic activities for alkene epoxidation and alkane hydroxylation using sodium periodate as oxidant. The effects of reaction parameters such as solvent, oxidant and axial ligands in the epoxidation of cis-cyclooctene are discussed. The axial donor ligands are shown to strongly influence the reactivity of the Mn(III) salen-montmorillonite. This catalytic system shows a good activity in the epoxidation of linear alkenes such as 1-heptene and 1-dodecene.