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A new polymer supported Cu(II) Schiff base complex was synthesized. The solid complex was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Its homogeneous analogue was also prepared. The catalytic performances of the copper complex in oxidation reactions were evaluated for both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. The copper(II) complex was found to be efficient catalyst for the oxidation of alkenes, alkanes and aromatic alcohols in the presence of hydrogen peroxide as oxidant at room temperature. The catalytic investigation revealed that the solid complex performs better than the homogeneous one as an oxidation catalyst. The solids containing the immobilized complex can be recovered from the reaction medium and reused almost five times, maintaining good catalytic activity. Furthermore, the in vitro toxicity of the ligand and complex was tested against the growth of bacterial species, viz., Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli .

Selective oxidation of olefins has been carried out in water medium with tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP, 70% aqueous) as an oxidant using polymer-anchored Ni(II) complex as a catalyst. Several parameters were varied to optimize the reac-tion conditions. Under the optimized reaction conditions olefins gave selectively allylic oxidation products. The present polymer anchored Ni(II) complex can be recycled five times without any appreciable loss in catalytic activity.