Chloride promoted room temperature preparation of silver nanoparticles on two dimensional tungsten oxide nanoarchitectures for the catalytic oxidation of tertiary N-compounds to N-oxides.

A halide ion promoted two dimensional silver tungsten-based nanomaterial was synthesized by a facile one-pot synthesis protocol at room temperature. The 2D morphology features high activity and selectivity for the oxidation of a wide range of tertiary N-compounds to their corresponding N-oxides. The morphology of Ag/WO3 materials can be varied by changing the synthesis parameters. The unique 2D plate like morphology of tungsten oxide increases adsorption sites of the support, leading to less sintering and higher dispersion of silver nanoparticles, resulting in significantly enhanced activity for the reaction. The influence of reaction parameters such as temperature, substrate to oxidant molar ratio, reaction time, etc. was investigated in detail. The catalyst was characterized by XRD, XPS, ICP-AES, TGA, FT-IR, UV-vis, Raman, SEM, TEM and STEM. Raman studies further provide mechanistic insight which proves that the formation of peroxo tungsten species is responsible for the N-oxidation reaction. High stability and recyclability of the 2D Ag/WO3 nanoplates are also observed under the investigated conditions.