ABSTRACT:Silica-supported titanium oxide catalysts were prepared by the controlled calcination of Ti-bridged polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) bearing four Si-O-Ti bonds, Ti[(c-C 5 H 9 ) 7 Si 7 O 11 (OSiMe 2 R)] 2 (1a; R = vinyl, 1b; R = methyl) and Ti[(c-C 5 H 9 ) 8 Si 8 O 13 )] 2 (2), supported on various silicas, and these catalysts showed excellent activities for the epoxidation of cyclooctene by t BuOOH as an oxidant to selectively give cyclooctene oxide in high yields. On the other hand, catalysts prepared using a corner-capped-type Ti-containing POSS, CpTi[(c-C 5 H 9 ) 7 Si 7 O 12 ] (3, Cp = cyclopentadienyl), or tetraisopropoxytitanium (4) showed lower activities. The 2 catalysts prepared from Ti-bridged POSS can be easily separated from the reaction mixture and reused without a significant loss of activity. These catalysts were also applicable for the epoxidation of limonene. A spectroscopic study revealed that calcination of Ti-bridged POSS supported on silica gave isolated tetrahedral Ti(IV) species, which would be responsible for the high activity, while calcination of silicasupported 3 or 4 gave aggregated surface titanium oxide species.

When used as additives, silicas strongly promoted the epoxidation of cyclooctene by (t)BuOOH in the presence of Ti-silsesquioxane (Ti-POSS), where Ti species were found to be bound to the silica surface. Based on this observation, highly-active silica-supported Ti catalysts were prepared by the thermal treatment of mixtures of Ti-POSS and silica.