DOI: 10.1002/cplu.201402460
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Full Papers
Self-Supported Chiral Polymeric Mn Salen Complexes as
Highly Active and Recyclable Catalysts for Epoxidation of
Nonfunctionalized Olefins
[
a]
[a, b]
[a, b]
[a, b]
Tamal Roy, Rukhsana I. Kureshy,*
Noor-ul H. Khan,
Sayed H. R. Abdi,
and
[
a, b]
Hari C. Bajaj
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A series of self-supported chiral polymeric Mn N,N’-ethylene-
bis(salicylimine) (salen) complexes were synthesized through
metalation of the corresponding salen ligands obtained by
condensation of several bis/tris-aldehydes with (1R,2R)-1,2-dia-
minocyclohexane. Upon employment in the asymmetric epoxi-
dation reaction of nonfunctionalized olefins, all complexes
showed enhanced activity and enantioselectivity relative to the
classical Jacobsen’s monomeric salen complex. However, 1,3,5-
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triazole-based polymeric Mn salen complex 7 was noticeably
preferred over others owing to its ability to render higher
enantioselectivity at the expense of lower catalyst loading. Fur-
thermore, complex 7 was recycled and reused in eight recy-
cling experiments with marginal loss in catalytic activity.
Introduction
Chiral epoxides are of great industrial worth as stereospecific
ring opening of these leads to the synthesis of numerous bio-
with the addition of a nonpolar solvent such as hexanes and
could subsequently be reused. Ionic liquids also featured as an
alternative solvent medium to ensure better recyclability of the
[1]
logically and pharmaceutically significant compounds. Amid
the numerous synthetic methods described in the literature for
[8]
catalyst under homogeneous reaction conditions only. Alter-
[
2]
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the procurement of chiral epoxides, the Mn N,N’-ethylene-
natively, immobilization of the homogeneous Mn salen com-
bis(salicylimine) (salen) complex-catalyzed asymmetric epoxida-
plex was accomplished by using several solid supports, such as
[
3]
[4]
[9]
[10]
[9a,11]
tion developed by Jacobsen et al. and Katsuki et al. at its in-
fancy is one of the most significant ones. Despite the high cat-
alytic activity obtained with the former catalytic systems for
asymmetric epoxidation of nonfunctionalized olefins, there is
still much room for improvement in terms of catalyst loading,
reaction time, and recyclability. The expensive nature of the
chiral catalysts enforced the scientific community worldwide to
be certain about the maximum utilization of a good catalytic
system. In this direction substantial research work has been
performed for the design and synthesis of recyclable chiral
mesoporous silica, zirconium phosphate, zeolite,
poly-
[12]
[13]
[14]
oxometalate, polymers, and membranes. Both of these
techniques for catalyst recyclability have their own merits and
demerits. Heterogeneous complexes, despite showing prefer-
ence over homogeneous recyclable catalytic systems in terms
of ease of recycling and product separation, still lack the reac-
tivity and enantioselectivity obtained for the product epoxide,
which are often less than those for the monomeric Jacobsen
[15]
system possibly because of the confinement effect. Hence,
a catalytic system that can improve on the catalytic activity as
well as rendering higher enantioselectivity at the expense of
lower catalyst loading, along with a very high degree of reusa-
bility without sacrificing its catalytic activity, is always desira-
ble.
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Mn salen complexes, which was achieved in both homogene-
ous and heterogeneous conditions. For recyclability of the cat-
alyst under homogeneous reaction conditions, several dimer-
[
5]
[6]
[7]
ic, oligomeric, and polymeric versions of Jacobsen’s mono-
meric salen system have been tested, which could be precipi-
tated out from the reaction mass in a postcatalytic workup
Recently, chiral metal–organic polymers have gathered a lot
of attention as an alternative strategy for catalyst recyclability
owing to the enhanced activity and enantioselectivity relative
to their monomeric counterparts. In this direction, we have
also reported several polymeric chiral ligands based on some
[
a] Dr. T. Roy, Dr. R. I. Kureshy, Dr. N.-u. H. Khan, Dr. S. H. R. Abdi, Dr. H. C. Bajaj
Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis
Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI)
Bhavnagar, Gujarat 364 021 (India)
[16]
chiral as well as nonchiral bridging precursors. Herein, we
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have employed Mn salen complexes with various ditopic/tri-
Fax: (+91)0278-2566970
E-mail: rukhsana93@yahoo.co.in
topic linkers, namely, methylene a, piperazine b, trigol c, (R)/(S)/
racemic 1,1’-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL, d–f), and triazine-piperazine
linker g (Figure 1), on the ligands in the asymmetric epoxida-
tion of nonfunctionalized olefins in the presence of an oxygen
donor to give chiral epoxides in high yield and enantioselectiv-
ity with eight times catalyst recyclability.
[
b] Dr. R. I. Kureshy, Dr. N.-u. H. Khan, Dr. S. H. R. Abdi, Dr. H. C. Bajaj
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR)
Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI)
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)
G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar, Gujarat 364 021 (India)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cplu.201402460.
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