Catalytic and photocatalytic epoxidation of limonene: Using mesoporous silica nanoparticles as functional support for a Janus-like approach

Abstract Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) were used as a platform to design novel active materials for the catalytic and photocatalytic epoxidation of limonene. Binary systems comprised of TiO2 and MSN were used for the catalytic reaction when doped with manganese, and for the photocatalytic reaction when functionalised with hexadecyl chains or imidazolinyl groups. All of the MSN based systems were synthesized by condensation in emulsion. A thorough characterization of the powders has been performed by means of Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR, Raman and EPR Spectroscopy, Fluorescence and diffuse reflectance UV–vis (DR…