Novel sea urchin-like polyaniline microspheres-supported molybdenum catalyst: Preparation, characteristic and functionality

Novel heterogeneous molybdenum catalysts were successfully synthesized using sea urchin-like polyaniline (PANI) hollow microspheres constructed with their own oriented nanofibers arrays as support. This catalyst was successfully applied for efficient epoxidation of olefins using tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP) as oxidant. The catalytic activity of the PANI microspheres-supported catalysts (95% conversion) was found to be higher than that observed for its corresponding homogenous catalyst (85% conversion) and the conventional PANI-supported catalyst (65% conversion). The immobilized catalyst showed a stable catalytic activity in manifold reuses. It was found that the special micro/nanoscale spherical morphology plays an important role for the enhancement of activities of the polymer-supported heterogeneous catalyst.

Graphical abstractBy using sea urchin-like PANI hollow microspheres microspheres as support, a novel polymer-supported molybdenum catalyst was successfully produced. This catalyst was efficiently applied to the epoxidation of wide range of linear and cyclic alkenes. The special micro/nanoscale spherical morphology played an important role in the enhancement of catalytic activity.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide