Highly selective synthesis of styrene oxide over phosphotungstic acid supported on mesoporous Mn-MCM-41 molecular sieves

Tungstophosphoric acid (H3PW12O40) (PW) catalysts supported on mesoporous Mn-MCM-41(n Si/n Mn = 25) with various (10, 20 and 30 wt%) acid loadings were prepared by impregnation, and their physical chemical properties were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption–desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The host material suffers severe structural distortions at higher loading, which lead to a considerable loss of long-range orders. Their catalytic performances were evaluated in the epoxidation of styrene with dilute H2O2 (30%) as an oxidizing agent under liquid phase reaction conditions over PW/Mn-MCM-41 catalysts for selective synthesis of styrene oxide. The influences of various reaction parameters such as temperature, time, solvents, PW loading and catalyst amount, styrene to H2O2 mmol ratios and acetonitrile (MeCN) to N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) volume ratios on the conversion of styrene and yield as well as selectivity of styrene oxide have also been studied in details. The results revealed that 20% PW/Mn-MCM-41 (n Si/n Mn = 25) was more active than other catalysts. The PW/Mn-MCM-41, moreover, was found to be reusable and environmentally benign for the epoxidation of styrene.