Osmium impregnated on magnetite as a heterogeneous catalyst for the syn-dihydroxylation of alkenes

•Easy preparation of a novel magnetic nanocatalyst.•Simple catalyst removing by an external magnetic field.•The lowest catalyst loading reported for this transformation.•The use of complicated and expensive organic ligands, used in related processes, is avoided.

A new catalyst derived from osmium has been prepared, fully characterized and tested in the dihydroxylation of alkenes. The catalyst was prepared by wet impregnation methodology of OsCl3·3H2O on a commercial micro-magnetite surface. The catalyst allowed the reaction with one of the lowest osmium loadings for a heterogeneous catalyst and was selective for the monodihydroxylation of 1,5-dienes. Moreover, the catalyst was easily removed from the reaction medium by the simple use of a magnet. The selectivity of catalyst is very high with conversions up to 99%. Preliminary kinetics studies showed a first-order reaction rate with respect to the catalyst.

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