Catalytic Effects of the New Schiff Base Metal Complexes on the Conversion of Benzyl Alcohol to Benzaldehyde and Benzoic Acid

Abstract In this study, two new salicylidene hydroxyl ligands (HL 1 and HL 2 ) and their metal complexes (Cu 2+ , Mn 2+ , Fe 3+ , Ru 3+ , Cr 3+ , and VO 2+ ) were synthesized and characterized by the spectroscopic and analytical methods. The molecular structure of the ligand HL 1 was determined by a single-crystal X-ray diffraction study. Catalytic effects of the Schiff base metal complexes on benzyl alcohol were investigated in the H 2 O 2 medium. In this oxidation reaction, the percent conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde and benzoic acid was determined as %benzaldehyde and %benzoic acid by the gas chromatography (GC) method. Finally, the synthesized metal complexes found the highest catalytic effect that Co and Mn metal complexes 97-98% benzyl alcohol conversion. And maximum %benzoic acid formation is seen in MnL 1 (39%) and VOL 1 (58%) metal complexes.