Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Catalysis Letters https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-018-2354-z Nanohybrid Complexes with Molybdenyl Acetylacetonate, Schif Base and Lacunary Keggin-Type Polyoxometalates: Synthesis and Catalytic Epoxidation of Olefns in the Presence of tert-Butyl Hydroperoxide Samira S. Hosseinyzade 1  · Farrokhzad M. Zonoz 1  · Bahram Bahramian 2 Received: 27 December 2017 / Accepted: 10 March 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Two new nanohybrid compounds as heterogenous catalyst were prepared by reaction of Lacunary Keggin-type polyoxo- metalate compounds ([SiW 11 O 39 ] 8− and [PW 11 O 39 ] 7− ), molybdenyl acetylacetonate [MoO 2 (acac) 2 ] and ethylenediamine (en), (1 and 2 respectively) species and characterized by elemental analysis and various routine techniques. The catalytic activities of these nanocatalysts examined for the epoxidation of linear, cyclic and phenyl-substituted olefns using tert-Butyl hydroperoxide (tert-BuOOH) as oxidants. The synergistic efect between molybdenyl acetylacetonate complex and lacunary Keggin-type polyoxometalate plays an important role in the promotion of catalytic activity. The catalysts were recovered and reused at least six times without obvious losing of activity and the yields for catalyst recovery are all above 91%. Graphical Abstract Keywords Keggin-type polyoxometalates · Molybdenyl acetylacetonate · Schif base · Olefn · Epoxidation · Nanohybrid 1 Introduction The preparations of new heterogeneous catalysts for selec- tive oxidation of organic compounds are currently a notable assay purpose [1–5]. Heterogeneous catalysts have signif- cant advantages over homogeneous catalysts such as stabil- ity, facility of separation, and reusability [6]. The oxidation of alkenes is a considerable process in the chemical and petrochemical industries [7, 8], because these compounds are greatly used for the synthesis of a variety of organic compounds like resins, surfactants, paints and are intermedi- ates in pharmaceutical synthesis [9]. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are soluble anionic metal- oxide clusters with oxygen-rich surface, the intense tendency for coordination and potential applications in many felds such as catalysis, ion exchange, magnetism, photochemis- try and material science [10–20]. Using POMs as acid and oxidation catalysts is one of the important applications of these compounds [21, 22]. Silicotungstic acid (H 4 SiW 12 O 40 ), phosphotungstic acid (H 3 PW 12 O 40 ) and their transition metal substituted of mono-defect fragments with Keggin structure * Farrokhzad M. Zonoz f.zonoz@hsu.ac.ir 1 Department of Chemistry, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar 96179-76487, Iran 2 College of Chemistry, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood 36155-316, Iran