Titanium-silica catalyst derived from defined metallic titanium cluster precursor: Synthesis and catalytic properties in selective oxidations

A class of titanium-grafted mesoporous silica catalysts has been designed and prepared starting from molecularly defined metal clusters. The organosol mixture of zerovalent Ti₁₃ clusters was impregnated onto the surface of ordered mesoporous silica molecular sieves (MCM-41 and MMM-2) and, after high-temperature calcination, an evenly dispersed non-single-site Ti(IV)_nO_x-like silica-supported catalyst was obtained. The catalytic solids, fully characterized by microscopic, spectroscopic and porosimetric techniques, showed standard performance in the liquid-phase epoxidation of a cyclic alkene, as limonene, but remarkably high selectivity values in the oxidative carboxylation of styrene, with tert-butylhydroperoxide and carbon dioxide in the presence of tetrabutylammonium bromide as a cocatalyst. Unprecedented high yields, up to 67%, in styrene carbonate were achieved after 24 h, under solvent-free conditions. The catalysts displayed also a noteworthy stability of the performance to repeated recovery and reuse cycles.