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The complexity of variables during incipient wetness impregnation synthesis of supported metal oxides precludes an in-depth understanding of the chemical reactions governing the formation of the dispersed oxide sites. This contribution describes the use of vapor phase deposition chemistry (also known as grafting) as a tool to systematically investigate the influence of isopropanol solvent on VO(Oi Pr)3 anchoring during synthesis of vanadium oxide on silica. The availability of anchoring sites on silica was found to depend not only on the pretreatment of the silica but also on the solvent present. H-bond donors can reduce the reactivity of isolated silanols whereas disruption of silanol nests by H-bond acceptors can turn unreactive H-bonded silanols into reactive anchoring sites. The model suggested here can inform improved syntheses with increased dispersion of metal oxides on silica.

The abundant sesquiterpene β-caryophyllene can be epoxidized by molecular oxygen in the absence of any catalyst. In polar aprotic solvents, the reaction proceeds smoothly with epoxide selectivities exceeding 70 %. A mechanistic study has been performed and the possible involvement of free radical, spin inversion, and electron transfer mechanisms is evaluated using experimental and computational methods. The experimental data-including a detailed reaction product analysis, studies on reaction parameters, solvent effects, additives and an electrochemical investigation-all support that the spontaneous epoxidation of β-caryophyllene constitutes a rare case of unsensitized electron transfer from an olefin to triplet oxygen under mild conditions (80 °C, 1 bar O2 ). As initiation of the oxygenation reaction, the formation of a caryophyllene-derived radical cation via electron transfer is proposed. This radical cation reacts with triplet oxygen to a dioxetane via a chain mechanism with chain lengths exceeding 100 under optimized conditions. The dioxetane then acts as an in situ-formed epoxidizing agent. Under nitrogen atmosphere, the presence of a one-electron acceptor leads to the selective isomerization of β-caryophyllene to isocaryophyllene. Observations indicate that this isomerization reaction is a novel and elegant synthetic pathway to isocaryophyllene.

TiCl4 grafted to dehydrated silica is an industrially applied catalyst for the epoxidation of propylene. As with many heterogeneous catalysts, the precise nature of the surface species is not yet fully known, prohibiting reliable structure-activity correlations. In this study, the speciation and restructuring of site-isolated Ti(IV) Lewis acid centers was carefully investigated by using a variety of techniques. The initially formed ≡SiOTiCl3 species were found to restructure upon heating through the transfer of Cl ligands to the silica surface, eventually leading to tripodal (≡SiO)3 TiCl species. The superior activity and stability of such tripodal species is demonstrated for catalytic olefin epoxidation under continuous flow conditions.

Molybdenum(VI)peroxide species, formed in the reaction of MoVI complexes with peroxides, are able to epoxidize >CC< double bonds heterolytically. In this study, theoretical and experimental evidence is provided for a kinetically competing reaction reaction of such molybdenum(VI)peroxide species with additional peroxide reagent, leading to molybdenum(VI)trioxide species, which easily decompose into radicals. Under epoxidation conditions, those radicals will reduce the selectivity, due to the formation of allylic byproducts. The involved reaction pathways are characterized by DFT calculations, providing kinetic parameters that are in good agreement with the experimental observations.

In this work, a complementary experimental and theoretical approach is used to unravel the formation of byproducts in the autoxidation of cyclohexane. The widely accepted vision that cyclohexanone would be the most important precursor of undesired products was found inconsistent with several experimental observations. However, the propagation reaction of cyclohexyl hydroperoxide, which we recently put forward as the missing source of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone, is now unambiguously identified also as the dominant path leading to byproducts. Indeed, this overlooked reaction produces large amounts of cyclohexoxy radicals, able to ring-open via a beta-C--C cleavage to omega-formyl radicals. The pathway by which these radicals are converted into the observed and quantified byproducts is derived in this work. In this liquid-phase reaction, solvent cages were found very important, steering the fate of nascent species.