Issue 1, 2016

Molybdenum-doped α-MnO2 as an efficient reusable heterogeneous catalyst for aerobic sulfide oxygenation

Abstract

Oxygenation of sulfides to sulfoxides and/or sulfones is an important transformation, and the development of efficient heterogeneous catalysts for oxygenation, which can utilize O2 as the terminal oxidant, is highly desired. In this study, we have successfully developed manganese oxide-based efficient heterogeneous catalysts for aerobic oxygenation of sulfides. Firstly, we prepared four kinds of manganese oxides possessing different crystal structures, such as α-MnO2, β-MnO2, γ-MnO2, and δ-MnO2, and their structure–activity relationships were examined for the aerobic oxygenation of thioanisole. Amongst them, α-MnO2 showed the best catalytic performance for the oxygenation. Moreover, α-MnO2 was highly stable during the catalytic oxygenation possibly due to the tunnel K+ ions. In order to further improve the catalytic performance of α-MnO2, substitutional doping of transition metal cations, such as Mo6+, V5+, Cr3+, and Cu2+, into the framework was carried out. Undoped α-MnO2 possessed a fibrous morphology. When high-valent transition metal cations were doped, especially Mo6+, the lengths of the fibers drastically shortened to form grain-like aggregates of ultrafine nanocrystals, resulting in an increase in specific surface areas and the numbers of catalytically active surface sites. In the presence of Mo6+-doped α-MnO2 (Mo–MnO2), various kinds of sulfides could efficiently be oxidized to the corresponding sulfoxides as the major products. The observed catalysis was truly heterogeneous, and Mo–MnO2 could repeatedly be reused while keeping its high catalytic performance. Besides sulfide oxygenation, Mo–MnO2 could efficiently catalyze several aerobic oxidative functional group transformations through single-electron transfer oxidation processes, namely, oxygenation of alkylarenes, oxidative α-cyanation of trialkylamines, and oxidative S-cyanation of benzenethiols.

Graphical abstract: Molybdenum-doped α-MnO2 as an efficient reusable heterogeneous catalyst for aerobic sulfide oxygenation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 sep. 2015
Accepted
11 oct. 2015
First published
14 oct. 2015

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2016,6, 222-233

Author version available

Molybdenum-doped α-MnO2 as an efficient reusable heterogeneous catalyst for aerobic sulfide oxygenation

T. Uematsu, Y. Miyamoto, Y. Ogasawara, K. Suzuki, K. Yamaguchi and N. Mizuno, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2016, 6, 222 DOI: 10.1039/C5CY01552A

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