Solventless, selective and catalytic oxidation of primary, secondary and benzylic alcohols by a Merrifield resin supported molybdenum(vi) complex with HO as an oxidant.

Here, we have described the synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of a dioxo-molybdenum(vi) complex supported on functionalized Merrifield resin (MR-SB-Mo). The functionalization of Merrifield resin (MR) was achieved in two-steps carbonylation (MR-C) and Schiff base formation (MR-SB). The compounds, MR-C, MR-SB and MR-SB-Mo, were characterized at each step of the synthesis by elemental, SEM, EDX, thermal, BET and different spectroscopic analysis. The catalyst, MR-SB-Mo, efficiently and selectively oxidized a wide variety of alcohols to aldehydes or ketones using 30% HO as an oxidant with reasonably good TOF (660 h in case of benzyl alcohol). The catalyst acted heterogeneously under solventless reaction conditions and did not lead to over oxidized products under optimized conditions. The catalyst afforded regeneration and can be reused for at least five reaction cycles without loss of efficiency and product selectivity. A reaction mechanism for the catalytic activity of MR-SB-Mo was proposed and a probable reactive intermediate species isolated.