Progress Of 1-Octene Epoxidation With Polyoxometalate As Catalyst

Catalysis by polyoxometalates (POMs) is a field of increasing importance. POMs have several advantages as catalysts which make them economically and environmentally attractive. On the one hand, POMs have a very strong, approaching the superacid region, Br?nsted acidity; on the other hand, they are efficient oxidants, exhibiting fast reversible multielectron redox transformations under rather mild conditions. Their acid-base and redox properties can be varied over a wide range by changing the chemical composition. These properties render POMs potentially promising acid, redox, and bifunctional catalysts in homogeneous as well as in heterogeneous systems. In applied catalysis, most of the pioneering work has been done since the 1970s mainly by Japanese, eight world-famous industrial processes based on polyoxometalates have been developed until now.Epoxide compounds are useful intermediates in organic syntheses. It is widely used for petrochemicals, fine chemicals and polymers. They are valuable precursors for the synthesis of epoxy resins, paints, surfactants, drugs, agrochemicals and food additives. Epoxidation of olefins is the most important reactions in organic synthesis to approach epoxides. Therefore, the research of olefins epoxidation has an important theory and practice significance.The purpose of this paper is to summarize recent developments for the epoxidation of 1-octene with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by polyoxometalates and other catalysts. The review mainly covers the recent literature published during the past ten years.