The selective cleavage oxidation of epoxide represents a promising strategy for generating value-added chemicals such as aldehyde compound. However, due to the fast oxidation kinetics of aldehyde, the developing catalytic process with highly selectivity remains a challenge. In this work, a chitin quaternary ammonium-composite phosphotungstate catalysts HPW-CT-QAS16 has been prepared and showed remarkable catalytic activity for the selective oxidative cleavage of epoxide using H2O2 as the oxidant. Both alkyl epoxide, aromatic epoxide, and natural methyl 9,10-epoxystearate can participate well in the reaction afforded 100% conversion and up to 97.5% aldehyde selectivity. More importantly, the chitin-based catalyst could be easily recovered and reused at least 5 times without a significant loss in its catalytic activity. These characteristics make the selective oxidative cleavage of epoxide more efficient and environmentally friendly, which may be beneficial for industry applications.

You have access to this article

Please wait while we load your content... Something went wrong. Try again?