Selective functionalization of hollow nanospheres with acid and base groups for cascade reactions

The inner-surface functionalization of hollow silica spheres has rarely been reported and is still a challenging topic. Herein, we report a deacetalization–Henry cascade reaction catalyzed by dual-functionalized mesoporous silica hollow nanospheres with basic amine groups ([BOND]NH2) on the internal...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gao, J., Zhang, X., Lu, Y., Liu, Shaomin, Liu, Jian
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-VCH Verlag 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/42298
Description
Summary:The inner-surface functionalization of hollow silica spheres has rarely been reported and is still a challenging topic. Herein, we report a deacetalization–Henry cascade reaction catalyzed by dual-functionalized mesoporous silica hollow nanospheres with basic amine groups ([BOND]NH2) on the internal shell and carboxylic acid groups ([BOND]COOH) on the external shell. The selective functionalization has been realized by a combination of “step-by-step post-grafting” and “cationic surfactant-assisted selective etching” strategy. Compared to unisolated catalyst, the selectively isolated acidic and basic dual catalyst provides excellent catalytic performance for the deacetalization–Henry cascade reaction in terms of both activity (>99 %) and selectivity (95 %).