Olefination of carbonyl compounds catalyzed by copper oxide-pillared clay

Abstract

Copper oxide pillared clays (Cu-pillared clays) was synthesized by the intercalation of copper complexs into clay interlayers of bentonite clay and followed by the calcinations at 300°C for 4 h. The synthesized products were characterized using Powder X-ray Diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption-desorption, inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The synthesized Cu-pillared bentonite exhibited mesoporous structure with copper loading of 15.59 wt%. The synthesized catalysts was used for olefination of carbonyl compounds with halogenating reagent comparing with raw bentonite and CuO. The quantitative yield of polyhaloalkene was obtained using Cu-pillared clays in the amount of 30 wt% to aldehyde starting material, at room temperature (27°C) for 4 h. This protocol was carried out in a short period of time under mild conditions. The optimized conditions could be applied to the olefination of different halogenated reagents such as CCl3Br, CBr4, CCl3F, CHI3 and CH3I to furnish the desired products in moderate to excellent yields.