Green epoxidation of cyclooctene with molecular oxygen over an ecofriendly heterogeneous polyoxometalate-gold catalyst Au/BW11/Al2O3

An ecofriendly heterogeneous polyoxometalate (POM)-gold catalyst Au/BW11/Al2O3was synthesized and used for solvent-free epoxidation of cyclooctene under mild reaction conditions using molecular oxygen as an oxidant and t-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an initiator. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), induced coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). The catalyst showed good conversion and high selectivity without use of solvents or environmentally harmful oxidants. Moreover, the catalyst is recyclable up to three cycles with no significant loss in selectivity towards epoxide.