Homogeneous catalytic oxidation of alkenes employing mononuclear vanadium complex with hydrogen peroxide

Homogeneous liquid-phase oxidation of alkenes (allylbenzene, cis-cyclooctene, 4-chlorostyrene, styrene, 2-norbornene, 1-methyl cyclohexene, indene, lemonine, and 1-hexene) were catalyzed by using vanadium complex [VO(hyap)(acac)2] in existence of H2O2. The complex [VO(hyap)(acac)2] was formed as a crystal by the reaction of [VO(acac)2] and 2-hydroxyacetophenone (hyap) in the presence of methanol by refluxing the reaction mixture. Various analytical and spectroscopic techniques, namely FTIR, ESI–MS, UV–Vis, single-crystal XRD, and EPR, were used to analyze and optimize the structure of the complexes.