Synthesis and characterization of nanocomposite based on polymer as a highly effective supported catalyst in oxidation of alkenes

Polyphosphotungstate (denoted as PPT) was supported on polypyrrol as organic support (abbreviated as PTT@Ppy) to produce catalytic active supported catalyst. This catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS). The catalyst showed high catalytic activity in the oxidation of alkenes under optimized conditions. In this work, cyclooctene was selected as model alkene for investigation of oxidation procedure, and then under optimized condition, other alkenes were examined. The catalyst could be readily separated from the catalytic system using the centrifuging and loss of activity was negligible when the catalyst was recovered in five consecutive cycles. For this research, a statistical method called response surface methodology (RSM) has been used to economize the number of experiments and their meaningful interpretation. The effect of various factors such as catalyst amount, time, oxidant amount and temperature on oxidation of alkenes were investigated. Optimization results for 0.2 mmol cyclooctene showed that maximum oxidation efficiency 88% was achieved at the optimum conditions: catalyst amount 200 mg, temperature 63, time 5 h and oxidant = 2.15 mmol.