Grafting of a rhenium-oxo complex on Schiff base functionalized graphene oxide: an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of amines.

A rhenium-oxo complex such as methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) has been homogeneously immobilized on a Schiff base modified graphene oxide (GrO) support via covalent bonding. The loading of MTO on GrO nanosheets was monitored by FTIR, TG-DTA, and elemental analyses. The developed heterogeneous catalyst is found to be efficient for the oxidation of various amines to the corresponding N-oxides using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant in high to excellent yields. At the end of the reaction, the catalyst is readily recovered by filtration and reused for subsequent runs. After the third run, the catalyst showed a marginal decrease in catalytic activity owing to the leaching of the MTO complex from the support.