Styrene epoxidation catalyzed by polyoxometalate/quaternary ammonium phase transfer catalysts: The effect of cation size and catalyst deactivation mechanism

Catalytic epoxidation of alkenes is an important type of organic reaction in chemical industry,and the deep insight into catalyst deactivation will help to develop new epoxidation process.In this work,series of quaternary ammoniums bearing different cationic sizes,i.e.MTOA+(methyltrioctylammonium,[(C_(8)H_(17))_(3)CH_(3)N]+),HTMA+(hexadecyltrimethylammonium,[(C_(16)H_(33))(CH_(3))_(3)N]+) and DMDOA+(dimethyldioctadecylammonium,[(C_(18)H_(37))_(2)(CH_(3))_(2)N]+) were incorporated with polyoxometalate (POM) anions to prepare phase transfer catalysts (PTCs),which were used in the styrene epoxidations.Among them,(MTOA)_(3)PW_(4)O_(24)exhibits the best catalytic performance judged from the highest styrene conversion rate(52%) and styrene oxide selectivity (93%),during which the styrene epoxidation conditions were optimized.Meanwhile,the deactivation mechanism of this kind of PTCs was proposed firstly,i.e.in the case of low H_(2)O_(2) content,the oxidant can only be used in the styrene epoxidation,in which the catalyst can transform into stable Keggin-type POM.But when the content of H_(2)O_(2) is higher,the excess H_(2)O_(2) can reactivate the Keggin-type POM into active (PW_(4)O_(24))_(3)-anions,which can trigger the ring-opening polymerization of styrene oxide.Consequently,the catalyst is deactivated by adhered poly(styrene oxide)irreversibly,which was determined by NMR spectra.In this situation,the active moiety{PO_(4)[WO(O_(2))_(2)]_(4)}_(3)-in phase-transfer catalytic system can break into some unidentified species with low W/P ratio with the presence of epoxides.This work will be beneficial for the design of new PTCs in alkene epoxidation in fine chemical industry.

Study on the epoxidation of olefins with H_(2)O_(2)catalyzed by biquaternary ammonium phosphotungstic acid

Selective epoxidation of olefins is an important field in chemical industry.In this work,we developed a new phosphotungstic acid catalyst{[(C_8H_(17))(CH_(3))_(2)N]_(2)(CH_(2))_(3)}_(1.5){PO_(4)[WO(O_(2))_(2)]_(4)}with long carbon chain and biquaternary ammonium cation.Cyclohexene could be epoxidized to cyclohexene oxide in 96.3%conversion and 98.2%selectivity.The catalyst type,solvent type,catalyst loading,initial molar ratio,temperature,cycle performance and substrate extensibility were studied and optimized,the kinetic parameters about overall reaction and unit reaction were also calculated.Dynamic light scattering analysis was carried out to explain the different catalytic performance between catalysts with different carbon chain length.This novel catalyst and the corresponding dynamics and mechanism study could probably help the industrial application on the epoxidation of cyclohexene with H_(2)O_(2).

Dioxygen Affinities and Catalytic Epoxidation Performanceof Transition-Metal Hydroxamates

The dioxygen affinities and catalytic epoxidation performance of transition-metal hydroxamates were investigated for the first time. The effects of substituents on these properties were also discussed in the paper.

Direct gas-phase epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide using air as oxidant on supported gold catalyst

Gold catalysts supported on SiO2, TiO2, TiO2-SiO2, and ZrO2-SiO2 supports were prepared by impregnating each support with a basic solution of tetrachloroauric acid. X-ray diffraction （XRD）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） techniques were used to characterize their structure and surface composition. The results indicated that the size of gold particles could be controlled to below 10 nm by this method of preparation. Washing gold catalysts with water could markedly enhance the dispersion of metallic gold particles on the surface, but it could not completely remove the chloride ions left on the surface. The catalytic performance of direct vapor-phase epoxidation of propylene using air as an oxidant over these catalysts was evaluated at atmospheric pressure. The selectivity to propylene oxide （PO） was found to vary with reaction time on the stream. At the reaction conditions of atmosphere pressure, temperature 325 ℃, feed gas ratio V（C3H6）/V（O2）= 1/2, and GHSV =6000h^-1, 17.9% PO selectivity with 0.9% propylene conversion were obtained at initial 10 min for Au/SiO2 catalyst. After reacting 60 min only 8.9% PO selectivity were detected, but the propylene conversion rises to 1.4% and the main product is transferred to acrolein （72% selectivity）. Washing Au/TiO2-SiO2 and Aa/ZrO2-SiO2 samples with magnesium citrate solution could markedly enhance the activity and PO selectivity because smaller gold particles were obtained.

Engineering three-layer core–shell S-1/TS-1@dendritic-SiO_(2) supported Au catalysts towards improved performance for propene epoxidation with H_(2) and O_(2)

The advocacy of green chemical industry has led to the development of highly efficient catalysts for direct gas-phase propene epoxidation with green,sustainable and simple essence.The S-1/TS-1@dendritic-SiO_(2) material with three-layer core–shell structure was developed and used as the support for Au catalysts,which showed simultaneously fantastic PO formation rate,PO selectivity and stability(over 100 h)for propene epoxidation with H_(2) and O_(2).It is found that silicalite-1(S-1)core and the middle thin layer of TS-1 offer great mass transfer ability,which could be responsible for the excellent stability.The designed dendritic SiO_(2) shell covers part of the acid sites on the external surface of TS-1,inhibiting the side reactions and improving the PO selectivity.Furthermore,three kinds of SiO_(2) shell morphologies(i.e.,dendritic,net,mesoporous shell)were designed,and relationship between shell morphology and catalytic performance was elucidated.The results in this paper harbour tremendous guiding significance for the design of highly efficient epoxidation catalysts.

Effects of the Amount of Tetrapropyl Ammonium Hydroxide in Synthesis on TS-1 Properties and Catalytic Performance in Epoxidation of Propylene

Titanium silicalite-1(TS-1) was synthesized by a hydrothermal synthesis method with different amounts of tetrapropyl ammonium hydroxide(TPAOH) as template.The as-prepared TS-1 was characterized by scanning electron microscopy,X-ray powder diffraction,Fourier-transform infrared resonance spectroscopy,ultravioletvisible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and nitrogen physical adsorption and desorption,and studied in the propylene epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide in a fixed bed reactor.The results showed that the amount of TPAOH had a strong influence on the grain morphology,the amount of framework Ti,and the average particle sizes of TS-1.With the increase of TPAOH amount in the synthesis(the molar ratio of TPAOH/SiO_2 increasing from 0.25 to 0.45),the morphology changed gradually from ellipsoids to cubes,the particle sizes of TS-1 decreased slightly,the amount of the framework Ti increased appreciably,and the catalytic stability in the propylene epoxidation increased markedly.Moreover,all the catalysts had the same selectivity to propylene epoxide.However,when the molar ratio of TPAOH/SiO_2 was further increased to 0.55,the particles became large hexagons with the size distribution in a wide range,and the catalytic stability decreased sharply although the amount of the framework Ti increased further,which can be attributed to the long diffusion paths of the reactants in the zeolite.

Propylene Epoxidation by Dioxygen over Catalyst Copper-loaded TiO_2

A copper-TiO2 based catalyst（Cu-OH-Cl-TiO2） was prepared through a slurry impregnation approach and the catalyst was found to be active and selective for the epoxidation of propylene by dioxygen. With a feed gas of 10% C3H6, 10% O2 and 80% N2 at a gas hourly space velocity（GHSV） of 4000 h-1, a propylene conversion of 4.8% and a propylene oxide（PO） selectivity of 38.9% were achieved over the obtained Cu-OH-Cl-TiO2 catalyst at a reaction temperature of 500 K. It revealed that Cu2＋ provided by crystalline Cu2（OH）3Cl plays a key role in catalytic conversion of propylene to PO.

Enhancing the dynamic electron transfer of Au species on wormhole-like TS-1 for boosting propene epoxidation performance with H_(2) and O_(2)

Engineering unique electronic structure of catalyst to boost catalytic performance is of prime scientific and industrial importance.Herein,the identification of intrinsic electronic sensitivity for direct propene epoxidation was first achieved over highly stable Au/wormhole-like TS-1 catalyst.Results show that the electron transfer of Au species can be regulated by manipulating the dynamic evolutions and contents of Au valence states,thus resulting in different catalytic performance in 100 h time-on-stream.By DFT calculations,kinetic analysis and multicharacterizations,it is found that the Au^(0) species with higher electronic population can easily transfer more electrons to activate surface O_(2) compared with Au^(1+) and Au^(3+) species.Moreover,there is a positive correlation between Au^(0) content and activity.Based on this correlation,a facile strategy is further proposed to boost Au^(0) percentage,resulting in the reported highest PO formation rate without adding promoters.This work harbors tremendous guiding significance to the design of highly efficient Au/Ti-containing catalyst for propene epoxidation with H_(2) and O_(2).

Effect of TS-1 Treatment by Mixed Alkaline on Propylene Epoxidation

Titanium silicate-1(TS-1) was treated with a mixed alkaline of tetrapropyl ammonium hydroxide(TPAOH) and NaOH. It was characterized by XRD, nitrogen physical adsorption, SEM, FT-IR, UV-Vis and ICPOES, and studied in propylene epoxidation. The mixed alkaline treatment with TPAOH/NaOH solution did not destroy the MFI structure of TS-1. With increasing NaOH concentrations, the relative crystallinity and the framework titanium decreased to some extent while the mesopore volume, mesopore diameter, and extra-framework titanium increased appreciably. When NaOH concentration was 0.0333 mol L^(-1), the best catalytic performance was obtained.

Explosion limits estimation and process optimization of direct propylene epoxidation with H2 and O2

Direct propylene epoxidation with H2 and O2,an attractive process to produce propylene oxide(PO),has a potential explosion danger due to the coexistence of flammable gases(i.e.,C3 H6 and H2)and oxidizer(i.e.,O2).The unknown explosion limits of the multi-component feed gas mixture make it difficult to optimize the reaction process under safe operation conditions.In this work,a distribution method is proposed and verified to be effective by comparing estimated and experimental explosion limits of more than 200 kinds of flammable gas mixture.Then,it is employed to estimate the explosion limits of the feed gas mixture,some results of which are also validated by the classic Le Chatelier’s Rule and flammable resistance method.Based on the estimated explosion limits,process optimization is carried out using commercially high and inherently safe reactant concentrations to enhance reaction performance.The promising results are directly obtained through the interface called gOPT in gPROMS only by using a simple,easy-constructed and mature packed-bed reactor,such as the PO yield of 13.3%,PO selectivity of 85.1%and outlet PO fraction of 1.8%.These results can be rationalized by indepth analyses and discussion about the effects of the decision variables on the operation safety and reaction performance.The insights revealed here could shed new light on the process development of the PO production based on the estimation of the explosion limits of the multi-component feed gas mixture containing flammable gase s,inert gas and O2,followed by process optimization.

Liquid-phase epoxidation of propylene with molecular oxygen by chloride manganese meso-tetraphenylporphyrins

Propylene molecule owns two active sites,the direct epoxidation of propylene by dioxygen is still a challenge due to the limitation of selectivity.In this work,the direct liquid-phase propylene aerobic epoxidation protocol by chloride manganese meso-tetraphenylporphyrin(MnTPPCl)was developed.The conversion of propylene was 12.7%,and the selectivity towards PO(propylene oxide)reached up to 80.5%.The formation of PO was attributed to the mechanism via high-valent Mn species,which was confirmed by means of in situ UV–vis spectrum.

Characterization of silylated Ti-grafted HMS catalyst and its excellent epoxidation performance

Silylated Ti-grafted hexagonal mesoporous silica （HMS） catalyst was prepared by the chemical vapor deposition （CVD） using TIC14 as titanium source and hexamethyldisilazane （HMDSZ） as silylating agent. The samples were characterized by XRD, N2- adsorption, PTIR, 29Si NMR, DR UV-vis, and evaluated by epoxidation of styrene, propylene, cyclohexene, and 1-hexene with cumene hydroperoxide （CLIP） as oxidant, respectively. It is revealed that the catalyst possesses typical mesoporous structure, high hydrophobicity and highly dispersed tetracoordinated titanium sites and hence exhibits excellent performance in epoxidation of olefins.

Epoxidation of Styrene-Isoprene-Styrene Block Copolymer and Research on Its Reaction Mechanism

Styrene-isoprene-styrene（SIS） block copolymer was modified into epoxidized styrene-isoprene-styrene（ESIS） block copolymer with performic acid generated in situ from hydrogen peroxide and formic acid.The structure and property of ESIS were characterized by Fourier transform infrared（FT-IR） spectroscopy,gel permeation chromatography（GPC）,thermogravimetric/differential thermogravimetric（TG/DTG）,melt flow rate（MFR） and dynamic mechanical analysis（DMA）,and the reaction mechanism in the process of epoxidation was analyzed.The results showed that C=C double bonds of 1,4-structure were more active than that of 3,4-structure in polyisoprene chains.With epoxidation reaction proceeding,the whole tendency of molecular weight increased and molecular weight distribution widened,and MFR firstly increased and latterly decreased.The heat resistance of ESIS was superior to that of SIS.When SIS was changed into ESIS with 15.3% of mass fraction of epoxide groups,Tg of polyisoprene chains increased from-45.3 ℃ to 10.9 ℃.In the earlier period of epoxidation,some molecular chains ruptured and new substances with low molecular weight formed.However,in the latter period,crosslinking reaction between molecular chains which was initiated by epoxide groups or C=C double bonds occurred and crosslinked insoluble substances came into being.

Styrene epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide over calcium oxide catalysts prepared from various precursors

A series of CaO samples were prepared by calcination of commercially available and synthesis of calcium salt precursors such as calcium acetate, carbonate, hydroxide and oxalate etc. CaO samples were found to be effective for the epoxidation of styrene using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant in the presence of acetonitrile. To determine the influence of the physicochemical properties and surface basicity on the catalytic activity, the prepared CaO samples were characterized using thermogravimetry （TG）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, N2-adsorption and temperature-programmed desorption of CO2 （CO2-TPD）. The results indicate that the amounts of very strong basic sites and high basicity strength on CaO sample are key factors for its excellent catalytic performance. In contrast, the surface area, porosity and the surface structure of CaO sample have a relatively minor effect on the catalytic activity. CaO sample, obtained by the decomposition of Ca（OH）2, prepared by precipitating calcium nitrate with sodium hydroxide in ethylene glycol solution, exhibits the highest amount of very strong basic sites and stronger strength of basic sites, and therefore it catalyses the epoxidation of styrene with the highest rate among the tested CaO samples. Under the selected reaction conditions, the selectivity of 97.5% to styrene oxide at a conversion in excess of 99% could be obtained.

Mono-lacunary PrIII-Polyoxotungstate: Epoxidation of Alkenes with Unusual Selectivity

The utilization of polyoxometalates （POMs） or their derivatives as homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts in alkene epoxidation is a subject of considerable research activity[1]. The limitation to the use of POMs in these catalytic reactions is either their relatively low selectivity in epoxide formation or applicability for a rather limited type of alkenes. Therefore, it would be beneficial if the catalysts bear high selectivity for epoxidation and are applicable for a rather wide variety of alkenes, which is desirable in industrial processes and also vital for the selection of an ideal catalyst[2]. In search for an efficient and practical epoxidation method to utilize aqueous H2O2 as terminal oxidant, we focus on the rare-earth complexes with lacunary POM ligands.

Synthesis of Three Novel Chiral Binuclear Mn(Ⅲ)-Schiff-base Complexes and the Application in Asymmetric Epoxidation of traws-Stilbene

Three novel chiral binuclear Mn(Ⅲ)-Schiff-base complexes have been synthesized and the application of these complexes in the asymmetric epoxidation of trans-stilbene is described, catalytic mechanism is also discussed briefly.

Post-treatment of TS-1 with Mixtures of TPAOH and Ammonium Salts and the Catalytic Properties in Propylene Epoxidation

TS-1/SiO_2 extrudate was post-treated with mixed solution of tetrapropyl ammonium hydroxide(TPAOH)and various ammonium salts solution(NH_4F,(NH_4)_3PO_4,(NH_4)_2CO_3,(NH_4)_2SO_4,NH_4CH_3CO_2,NH_4NO_3,NH_4Cl and(NH_4)_2TiF_6).The obtained hierarchical TS-1 catalysts were characterized by many techniques and tested for propylene epoxidation using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant in a fixed-bed reactor.It was shown that the physicochemical and catalytic properties of the treated TS-1/SiO_2 extrudate depended on the types of ammonium salts added.Compared to the treatment with TPAOH alone,the treatment with a mixed solution of TPAOH and some ammonium salts can greatly improve the catalytic properties of the treated TS-1/SiO_2 extrudate.Some of these ammonium salts were favorable for the incorporation of titanium in the framework,and the beneficial effect depended on the types of ammonium salt.TS-1/SiO_2 extrudate treated with a mixed solution of TPAOH and(NH_4)_3PO_4 exhibited the highest catalyst stability in propylene epoxidation.Such catalytic property can be correlated to high crystallinity,more framework titanium,large specific surface area and large external surface area.

Metal catalyzed ethylene epoxidation:A comparative density functional theory study

Ethylene epoxidation on Ag（111）, Pt（111）, Rh（111） and Mo（100） has been studied by density functional theory （DFT） calculations. The results show that the adsorption energies of possible adsorbed species involved in the ethylene epoxidation increase in the order： Ag〈Pt〈Rh〈Mo, and the activation energies of the formation of epoxide （EtO） and acetaldehyde （Ac） follow the same order. Moreover, it is found that the smallest difference in the activation energies between EtO formation and Ac formation is shown on Ag. These results indicate that the metallic Ag shows the highest between activity and selectivity for ethylene epoxidation among the studied metal surfaces. Perhaps, the stability of OMME intermediate is the crucial factor in controlling the activity and selectivity. And the stronger the binding of OMME, the lower the activity and selectivity are. In addition, the relationships between the reaction enthalpy and activation energy on these four metal surfaces are investigated, and it is found that such a correlation is only applied for OMME（a） → EtO（a） and OMME（a） → Ac（a）, while invalid for the case of C2H4（a） ＋ O（a） → OMME（a）.