Studies in structural characterization and correlation with the catalytic activity of an efficient and stable WOx/SBA-15 nanocomposite catalyst

A new WOx/SBA-15 nanocomposite catalyst system was developed by hydrothermal synthesis. The material was characterized by X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, sorption analysis, FT-IR, CP-MAS NMR, XPS, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. Various types of aromatic and aliphatic sulfides were selectively oxidized to sulfoxides in good to excellent yields without becoming overoxidized to the sulfones using 70% aq. tert-butyl hydrogen peroxide in the presence of nanocomposite catalyst at room temperature. The catalyst could be easily recovered and reused for at least eight reaction cycles under the reaction conditions described here with no significant loss of reactivity.