The synthesis of metal Complexes and their application in environmental catalysis

Synthesis of complex tetraoxo-μ-oxobispentamethylpentacyclodienyl-dimolybdenum, Cp*2Mo2O5 was carried out in THF using Mo(CO)6 and NaCp* as starting materials. Oxidizing the intermediate, Na[Cp*Mo(CO)3], with 6 equivalent of TBHP under basic condition follow by acidification in aqueous resulting the product, Cp*2Mo2O5, was obtained in reasonable yield (42%). Characterizations of the synthesized complex were done using 1 H NMR and ESI-MS. The complex was used as catalyst for the study on phenol oxidation under different experimental temperatures at different pH values. The catalytic efficiency of this catalyst was also compared with Na2MoO4.2H2O since they have same metal center. The catalytic result of Cp*2Mo2O5 on phenol oxidation shows that the catalysis works best without pH controlled at higher temperature. However, there is no significant evidence proves that Cp*2Mo2O5 is a better catalyst on phenol oxidation over Na2MoO4.2H2O. Also, the catalysis of Na2MoO4.2H2O is also compared with that of Na2WO4.2H2O. The results show that the catalyst with tungsten metal is more efficient on phenol oxidation over the one with molybdenum metal.