Hydrocarbon oxidation catalyzed by iron and manganese porphyrins anchored on aminofunctionalized supports

The second-generation metalloporphyrins (MePs) [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin iron(III)] chloride, FeP, and [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin manganese(III)] chloride, MnP, were covalently attached to aminofunctionalized supports, with a view to preparing selective solid catalysts for the oxidation of organic compounds. Montmorillonite K10 functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (Mont1) or modified with 3-chloropropyltriethoxysilane followed by reaction with 1,6-diaminohexane (Mont2), and silica gel functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (Sil1) or modified with 3-chloropropyltriethoxysilane followed by reaction with 1,6-diaminohexane (Sil2) were synthesized and characterized by UV-Vis and IR spectroscopies, EPR, TGA, and X-ray diffractometry. The catalytic activities of the MePs immobilized on these supports were investigated for the oxidation of (Z)-cyclooctene, cyclohexane and styrene by PhIO or H2O2. The studied systems were efficient catalysts for the oxidation of all substrates, especially when PhIO was the oxidant. There was no MeP leaching from the supports, indicating that covalent binding is a very efficient method for catalyst immobilization. The immobilized FePs were more efficient catalysts than the corresponding MnPs, even when imidazole was employed as a cocatalyst for the supported MnPs. Although the yields of oxidized products obtained with H2O2 were lower than those achieved with PhIO, some heterogeneous MeP systems were more efficient than the parent MePs in solution, both in terms of product yield and selectivity.