Cyclooctene epoxidation using Nb-MCM-41 and Ti-MCM-41 synthesized at room temperature Original Research Article

An efficient and simple method for preparing titanium or niobium containing MCM-41 has been developed. The mesoporous materials were synthesized at room temperature using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMABr) as template and (NH4)2TiF6 or NH4[NbO(C2O4)2(H2O)2]·(H2O)3 as metal source. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR and diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopies, which showed that most of the metal was incorporated into the framework of MCM-41. Ti and Nb containing MCM-41 were tested in the solvent-free epoxidation of cis-cyclooctene using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as oxidant and a catalyst:cyclooctene molar ratio of 1:1000. After 24 h of reaction using Ti-MCM-41 and Nb-MCM-41 as catalyst, we obtained 82 and 65% yields of cyclooctene oxide, respectively, without formation of any by-products.