Fabrication of Silver-Tungsten Wafer-like Nanoarchitectures for Selective Epoxidation of Alkenes

Silver tungsten oxide wafer-like nanoarchitectures were prepared for the first time for selective epoxidation of a wide range of alkenes to their corresponding epoxides with high yield. The wafer-like nanostructure provides sufficient contact between the substrate/catalyst and overcomes the steric influence of the bulkier substrates. The influence of various reaction parameters, such as temperature, substrate to oxidant molar ratio, reaction time, and so forth, were investigated in detail. The catalyst was characterized by XRD, XPS, EXAFS, ICP-AES, RAMAN, SEM, and TEM. Raman studies prove that the formation of peroxo tungsten species is responsible for epoxiation reaction. High stability and recyclability of the Ag-W catalyst is also observed under the investigated conditions.