Epoxyethane Methoxycarbonylation over a Heterogeneous Catalyst Based on Functionalized Cobalt Carbonyl.

In this work, we report a new heterogeneous catalyst for the methoxycarbonylation of epoxyethane (EO) to methyl 3-hydroxypropanoate (3-HPM), achieving good yields and recyclability of up to three times with no obvious loss in catalytic activity. The catalysts were prepared through an effective strategy to anchor active cobalt carbonyl species to functionalized silica-based molecular sieves. The successful grafting of functional ligand and cobalt carbonyl cluster was evident through Si-MAS NMR and FT-IR studies.