Hexaaquoaluminum(III) as an environmental friendly activator of hydrogen peroxide for the catalytic epoxidation of cis-cyclooctene

A significant effort has been done towards the development of new catalysts for the synthesis of epoxides in a more environmental friendly way. We have found that a simple hexaaquoaluminum salt (2 mol% of Al(NO₃)₃ ·9 H₂O) is able to catalyze the epoxidation of cis-cyclooctene with high yields using aqueous (70 wt%) hydrogen peroxide. In THF we obtained 98% of conversion with 88% of selectivity for cyclooctene epoxide after 12 h