Poly(meta-phenylene oxides) for the design of a tunable, efficient, and reusable catalytic platform.

We present poly(meta-phenylene oxides) as versatile and tunable scaffolds for immobilized catalyst design. Their modular synthesis enables the rational incorporation of different side chain groups with positional control along the polymer backbone, providing an easy means to modulate polymer properties, and their corresponding catalytic activity. The coordinative convolution of these polymers with (NH4)2PdCl4 affords efficient, reusable catalysts for various organic transformations.

Development of a new triphase catalyst and its application to the epoxidation of allylic alcohols.

[see reaction]. A new triphase catalyst has been developed. When an aqueous solution of H3PW12O40 (1) was added to a solution of the amphiphilic chain copolymer 2, a new self-assembled and macroporous complex 3 was formed. This complex was effective as a catalyst in the epoxidation of allylic alcohols. Even in the use of 2.7 x 10(-5) mole equiv of the catalyst, the epoxidation with aqueous H2O2 proceeded without organic solvents to give the corresponding epoxy alcohols in high yields.