iron tetrasulfophthalocyanine immobilized onto amine modified mesostructured cellular foam as a heterogeneous catalyst in the oxidation of cyclohexene

Metallophthalocyanines (mpcs) is one of the most prominent catalysts that have been dominantly used in oxidation reactions. [1] the immobilization of mpcs onto porous supports has been extensively carried out by various methods to achieve stable and reusable catalysts [1]. mesostructured cellular foam (mcf) is a type of mesoporous silica; possess uniform spherical cells and windows with ultra-large 3d pore sizes, which make it a promising candidate to be used as support for the immobilization of macrocyclic complexes such as mpcs [2]. this type of support circumvents the diffusion limitation issue of substrates, which is crucial in the liquid-phase heterogeneous catalytic reactions [3]. in this work, mcf is functionalized with amine groups (nh2-mcf) and then used as support for the immobilization of iron tetrasulfophthalocyanine (fepcs) through electrostatic interaction between charged sulfonated and amine groups in aqueous media. the absorption of fepcs on nh2-mcf and its kinetics were examined by uv-vis spectroscopy. moreover, the physicochemical properties of the prepared material were characterized by low angle pxrd, n2 adsorption-desorption, fesem, ft-ir, and uv-drs. the catalytic performance of the supported catalyst (fepcs@nh2-mcf) was investigated in the oxidation of cyclohexene using molecular oxygen and iso-butyraldehyde as sacrificial co-reductant. under the optimized conditions, cyclohexene was oxidized into cyclohexene oxide and cyclohexenone with high conversion (92%) and selectivity (80%) towards the epoxide product.