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Science 9 May 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5621, pp. 964 - 966
DOI: 10.1126/science.1083176
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Reports

Efficient Epoxidation of Olefins with >=99% Selectivity and Use of Hydrogen Peroxide

Keigo Kamata,1 Koji Yonehara,2 Yasutaka Sumida,2 Kazuya Yamaguchi,1 Shiro Hikichi,1 Noritaka Mizuno1*

Epoxides are an important class of industrial chemicals that have been used as chemical intermediates. Catalytic epoxidation of olefins affords an interesting production technology. We found a widely usable green route to the production of epoxides: A silicotungstate compound, [{gamma}-SiW10O34(H2O)2]4–, is synthesized by protonation of a divacant, lacunary, Keggin-type polyoxometalate of [{gamma}-SiW10O36]8– and exhibits high catalytic performance for the epoxidation of various olefins, including propylene, with a hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) oxidant at 305 kelvin. The effectiveness of this catalyst is evidenced by >=99% selectivity to epoxide, >=99% efficiency of H2O2 utilization, high stereospecificity, and easy recovery of the catalyst from the homogeneous reaction mixture.

1 Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyoku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
2 Strategic Technology Research, Nippon Shokubai, 5-8 Nishi Otabi-cho, Suita, Osaka 564-8512, Japan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tmizuno{at}mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)