Silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles stabilized simple Mn-tetraphenylporphyrin for aqueous phase catalytic oxidations with tert-butyl hydroperoxide

An economic and environmentally friendly system for efficient and selective oxidation of industrially and biologically important substrates in water using tert-butyl hydroperoxide catalyzed by a new magnetically recoverable Mn-porphyrin was developed. The easily prepared heterogeneous catalyst was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. The size of the catalyst was estimated to be about 10 nm. The thermal gravimetric analysis demonstrated that the nanocatalyst was thermally stable up to almost 300 °C. The reactivity, selectivity and scope of the reaction were investigated with a variety of olefins, saturated hydrocarbons, alcohols and organosulfur compounds. The reactions proceeded smoothly in the absence of surfactants, organic co-solvents and thus take place “on water”. The separation and recycling of nanocatalyst as well as isolation of water-insoluble products were simple, effective and economical in this clean oxidation method.