A new chiral Fe(iii)–salen grafted mesoporous catalyst for enantioselective asymmetric ring opening of racemic epoxides at room temperature under solvent-free conditions

Abstract

We have designed a new mesoporous SBA-15 supported chiral Fe(III)–salen material (Fe@SBSAL) having high BET surface area and porosity. The material showed excellent catalytic efficiency in regio- and enantioselective (ee > 99%) asymmetric ring opening (ARO) of racemic meso- and terminal-epoxides with various anilines at room temperature under solvent-free conditions within 1–3 h reaction time.