Efficient organocatalytic synthesis of styrene oxide from styrene and its kinetic study in a continuous-flow microreaction system

Abstract Alkene epoxidation, which consists an important reaction in the synthesis of various fundamental chemical compounds, has aroused increasing attention in the field of organic synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide that is often considered as a green oxidant for the epoxidation of olefins is relatively unstable when reacting in batch reactor. Microreactor system possesses the advantages of high mass and heat transfer performances as well as great controllability, making it a suitable pathway for the epoxidation of olefins. In this work, a highly efficient microreaction system for epoxidation of styrene is studied. Both high conversion of styrene and excellent product selectivity could be achieved. The effects of temperature, residence time, molar fraction of catalyst, molar ratio of MeCN/t-BuOH, flow rate of H2O2 and buffer solution were studied. According to the experiment data, kinetic equation was built, which will be in favor of verifying the rationality of the reaction mechanism and optimizing experimental conditions.