Transition metal complexes as catalysts for alcohol oxidation

Abstract

Although a great many catalytic reactions of industrial importance are heterogeneous in type, homogeneous catalysis also plays a very vital role in the mechanism of many catalytic reactions. Most advances in industrial homogeneous catalysis are based on the development of coordination compounds as catalysts. Thousands of metal complexes have become known in the last few decades and the rapid development of the organic chemistry of the transition metals has been driven by their potential applications as industrial catalysts. More are being developed in order to find processes that would yield products in greater selectivity, purity and in high yields. Keeping this in mind, the present thesis addresses three major areas namely, designing, developing transition metal complexes using Schiff base and triphenylphosphine ligands. Synthesizing and characterizing all the complexes by established techniques like Elemental analysis, FT-IR, UV-Visible, Mass and NMR spectroscopy. Evaluating the catalytic activities of all the synthesized complexes, for the oxidation of alcohols by gas chromatography using mild oxidants like periodic acid, hydrogen peroxide and aqueous tert-butylhydroperoxide. All the synthesized complexes exhibited good catalytic activity. The mechanism involved in the reaction was also explored by UV visible spectral analysis during the reaction.