Alkylated polyethyleneimine/polyoxometalate synzymes as catalysts for the oxidation of hydrophobic substrates in water with hydrogen peroxide.

Combinations of alkylated polyethylenimine and polyoxometalates yield water-soluble synzymes with hydrophobic regions that allowed the aqueous biphasic selective oxidation of very hydrophobic, water-insoluble substrates with hydrogen peroxide. With the alkylated PEI/{PO4[WO(O2)2]4}3- highly effective C-C bond cleavage of alkenes to aldheydes was observed. The synzymes have both tertiary and quaternary amine centers as shown by a combination of 15N-1H HMBC and XPS measurements. The existence of hydrophobic regions was concluded from the measurement of contact angles and a hypsochromic shift of a fluorescent probe.