P. Van der Voort

The epoxidation of cyclohexene has been investigated on a metal–organic framework MIL-47 containing saturated V+IV sites linked with functionalized terephthalate linkers (MIL-47-X, X=OH, F, Cl, Br, CH3, NH2). Experimental catalytic tests have been performed on the MIL-47-X materials to elucidate the effect of linker substitution on the conversion. Notwithstanding the fact that these substituted materials are prone to leaching in the performed catalytic tests, the initial catalytic activity of these materials correlates with the Hammett substituent constants. In general, substituents led to an increased activity relative to the parent MIL-47. To rationalize the experimental findings, first-principles kinetic calculations were performed on periodic models of MIL-47 to determine the most important active sites by creating defect structures in the interior of the crystalline material. In a next step these defect structures were used to propose extended cluster models, which are able to reproduce in an adequate way the direct environment of the active metal site. An alkylperoxo species V+VO(OOtBu) was identified as the most abundant and therefore the most active epoxidation site. The structure of the most active site was a starting basis for the construction of extended cluster models including substituents. They were used for quantifying the effect of functionalization of the linkers on the catalytic performance of the heterogeneous catalyst MIL-47-X. Electron-withdrawing as well as electron-donating groups have been considered. The epoxidation activity of the functionalized models has been compared with the measured experimental conversion of cyclohexene. The agreement is fairly good. This combined experimental–theoretical study makes it possible to elucidate the structure of the most active site and to quantify the electronic modulating effects of linker substituents on the catalytic activity.

The epoxidation reaction of cyclohexene is investigated for the catalytic system vanadyl acetylacetonate (VO(acac)2) with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as oxidant with the aim to identify the most active species for epoxidation and to retrieve insight into the most plausible epoxidation mechanism. The reaction mixture is composed of various inactive and active complexes in which vanadium may either have oxidation state +IV or +V. Inactive species are activated with TBHP to form active complexes. After reaction with cyclohexene, each active species transforms back into an inactive complex that may be reactivated again. The reaction mixture is quite complex containing hydroxyl, acetyl acetonate, acetate, or a tert-butoxide anion as ligands, and thus, various ligand exchange reactions may occur among active and inactive complexes. Also, radical decomposition reactions allow transforming V+IV to V+V species. To obtain insight into the most abundant active complexes, each of previous transformation steps has been modeled through thermodynamic equilibrium steps. To unravel the nature of the most plausible epoxidation mechanism, first principle chemical kinetics calculations have been performed on all proposed epoxidation pathways. Our results allow to conclude that the concerted Sharpless mechanism is the preferred reaction mechanism and that alkylperoxo species V+IVO(L)(OOtBu) and V+VO(L1)(L2)(OOtBu) species are most abundant. At the onset of the catalytic cycle, vanadium +IV species may play an active role, but as the reaction proceeds, reaction mechanisms that involve vanadium +V species are preferred as the acetyl acetonate is readily oxidized. Additionally, an experimental IR and kinetic study has been performed to give a qualitative composition of the reaction mixture and to obtain experimental kinetic data for comparison with our theoretical values. The agreement between theory and experiment is satisfactory.