Pickering Interfacial Tandem Catalysis of Alkenes to 1,2-Diols over Manganese Oxide Catalysts at Room Temperature

In the tandem synthesis of 1,2-cyclohexanediol, solvents such as acetonitrile are often added to eliminate the immiscibility of cyclohexene with water and accordingly strengthen the interphase mass transfer; however, the usage of solvents artificially increases the solvent separation procedure, enhancing the energy consumption and decreasing the economic benefits of the reaction process. Hence, the development of the solvent-free Pickering interfacial tandem catalysis of cyclohexene to 1,2-cyclohexanediol is extremely appealing. In this study, β-MnO2 and Mn2O3 were prepared by calcining γ-MnO2 synthesized with the hydrothermal synthesis method and concurrently served as a colloidal emulsifier and a heterogeneous catalyst in the Pickering interfacial tandem catalysis of cyclohexene to 1,2-cyclohexanediol at room temperature in the presence of the oxidant molecular oxygen and the co-oxidant isobutyraldehyde. The prepared β450-MnO2 sample revealed the best tandem catalysis performance, achieving a cyclohexene conversion of 99.4% and a 1,2-cyclohexanediol selectivity of 83.6% within 4 h of reaction, which can be ascribed to the highest Mn4+/Mn3+ ratio and the greatest concentration of oxygen vacancies as well as the most stable Pickering emulsion. At the same time, density functional theory (DFT) studies further confirmed that isobutyraldehyde and molecular oxygen could be more easily adsorbed and activated by β450-MnO2 in comparison with the other catalyst samples, benefiting its eminent catalytic epoxidation performance. In addition, a possible reaction mechanism for the β450-MnO2 catalyst catalyzing cyclohexene into 1,2-cyclohexanediol in the Pickering interfacial tandem catalytic reaction system was put forward and validated through quenching experiments as well as in situ infrared characterization. The synthesized β450-MnO2 catalyst exhibited reusability for greater than 5 cycles, and meanwhile, the Pickering interfacial tandem catalytic reaction system can be expanded to a spread of linear and cyclic alkene substrates, highlighting the superiority of the β450-MnO2 catalyst. These findings verify that the synthesized β450-MnO2 catalyst is capable of being utilized as an efficient and stable catalyst for the Pickering interfacial catalytic conversion of alkenes into 1,2-diols at room temperature.