Heterogeneous chiral Mn(III) salen catalysts for the epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins immobilized on mesoporous materials with different pore sizes

Two chiral Mn(III) salen complexes were immobilized onto a series of mesoporous MCM-41 and MCM-48 materials with different pore sizes and the as-synthesized catalysts were active and enantioselective for the asymmetric epoxidation of styrene and indene. The results of XRD, FTIR, DR UV–vis, and N2 sorption showed that the chiral Mn(III) salen complexes were anchored in the channels of mesoporous materials. The influence of organic silicane dosage on the catalytic performance was studied and the optimum dosage of organic silicane for preparing heterogeneous catalysts was determined. Furthermore, the effect of the fine-tuning of pore size on the performance of heterogeneous catalysts was discussed. In general, larger pore size of the supports could lead to higher conversions and the compatible pore size with substrate may be responsible for the improved enantiomeric excess (ee) values.