Preparation of clay-supported Sn catalysts and application to Baeyer-Villiger oxidation

Article abstract of DOI:10.1039/c2gc16437j

Clay-intercalated Sn catalysts were prepared by a conventional cation-exchange method and used for the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of various ketones with hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant. The intercalation of monomeric Sn species into the clay interlayer was monitored by solid-state ⁷Li MAS NMR. Solid-state ¹¹⁹Sn MAS NMR and Sn K-edge XAFS analysis revealed that an isolated Sn species, such as [Sn^IV(OH)_x(H ₂O)_5-x]^(4-x)+ (x = 0-3), was formed in the clay interlayers. Our clay-intercalated Sn catalysts showed extremely high performance in Bayer-Villiger oxidation and were also reusable without any significant loss of activity or selectivity. The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012.