Alternative selective oxidation pathways for aldehyde oxidation and alkene epoxidation on a SiO2-supported Ru-monomer complex catalyst.

We have prepared a novel Ru-mononer complex supported on a SiO(2) surface by using a Ru-monomer complex precursor with a p-cymene ligand, which was found to be highly active for the selective oxidation of aldehydes and the epoxidation of alkenes using O(2). The structure of the supported Ru catalyst was characterized by means of FT-IR, solid-state NMR, diffuse-reflectance UV/vis, XPS, Ru K-edge EXAFS, and DFT calculations, which demonstrated the formation of isolatedly located, unsaturated Ru centers behind a p-cymene ligand of the Ru-complex precursor. The site-isolated Ru-monomer complex on SiO(2) achieved tremendous TONs (turnover numbers) for the selective oxidation of aldehydes and alkenes; e.g. TONs of 38,800,000 for selective isobutyraldehyde (IBA) oxidation and 2,100,000 for trans-stilbene epoxidation at ambient temperature, which are among the highest TONs in metal-complex catalyzes to our knowledge. We also found that the IBA sole oxidation with an activation energy of 48 kJ mol(-1) much more facile than the trans-stilbene epoxidation with an activation energy of 99 kJ mol(-1) was completely suppressed by the coexistence of trans-stilbene. The switchover of the selective oxidation pathways from the IBA oxidation to the trans-stilbene epoxidation was explained in terms of energy profiles for the alternative selective oxidation pathways, resulting in the preferential coordination of trans-stilbene to the Ru-complex at the surface. This aspect gives an insight into the origin of the efficient catalysis for selective epoxidation of alkenes with IBA/O(2).