Cubic Ag2O nanoparticle incorporated mesoporous silica with large bottle-neck like mesopores for the aerobic oxidative synthesis of disulfide

Abstract

Highly stable, environmentally benign cubic Ag₂O nanoparticles dispersed on mesoporous silica with large bottle-neck like mesopores were synthesized and characterized by BET surface area analysis, HR TEM, EDX, FTIR and powder XRD studies. The Ag₂O nanoparticles were homogeneously distributed having an average size of 20–40 nm. The activity of the catalyst was probed through an efficient aerobic chemoselective oxidation of thiols to disulfides in water under atmospheric oxygen as the cheapest oxidant. Alkyl, aryl and imine containing symmetrical disulfides can be easily obtained in high yields under mild reaction conditions with no over oxidized product. The efficiency of the catalyst was further demonstrated as the highly sensitive imine bond was well sustained under these mild reaction conditions. Moreover, unlike the other literature precedents, in this present work, single crystal structures of both simple symmetrical disulphide as well as imine containing disulphides are reported for the first time. The catalyst is very much water compatible and can be recycled and reused for at least five cycles. The standard leaching experiment proved that the reaction was heterogeneous with this recyclable catalyst.