Graphene oxide nanosheets supported manganese(III) porphyrin: a highly efficient and reusable biomimetic catalyst for epoxidation of alkenes with sodium periodate

Efficient epoxidation of alkenes catalyzed by tetrakis(p-aminophenyl)porphyrinatomanganese(III) chloride, [Mn(TNH2PP)Cl], supported on graphene oxide nanosheets, is reported. The catalyst, [Mn(TNH2PP)Cl]@GO, was prepared by covalent attachment of amino groups of porphyrin to carboxylic acid groups of GO. This new heterogenized catalyst was characterized by ICP, FT-IR and diffuse reflectance UV–vis spectroscopies, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. This catalyst was applied as an efficient and reusable catalyst in the epoxidation of alkenes with NaIO4 at room temperature, in the presence of imidazole as axial ligand. The most noteworthy advantage of [Mn(TNH2PP)Cl]@GO is its high reusability in the oxidation reactions, in which the catalyst was reused several times without significant loss of its catalytic activity.