Selective oxidative cleavage of epoxides to aldehydes by chitin quaternary ammonium phosphotungstate as a recycle catalyst

The selective cleavage oxidation of epoxide represents a promising strategy for generating value-added chemicals such as aldehyde compounds. However, due to the fast oxidation kinetics of aldehydes, developing a catalytic process with high selectivity remains a challenge. In this work, a chitin quaternary ammonium-composite phosphotungstate catalyst HPW-CT-QAS₁₆ has been prepared and found to show remarkable catalytic activity for the selective oxidative cleavage of epoxide using H₂O₂ as the oxidant. Both alkyl epoxide and aromatic epoxide and natural methyl 9,10-epoxystearate can participate well in the reaction affording 100% conversion and up to 97.5% aldehyde selectivity. More importantly, the chitin-based catalyst could be easily recovered and reused at least 5 times without any significant loss in its catalytic activity. These characteristics make the selective oxidative cleavage of epoxide more efficient and environmentally friendly, which may be beneficial for industrial applications.