Epoxidation of olefins and α,β-unsaturated ketones over sonochemically prepared hydroxyapatites using hydrogen peroxide

An effective and environmentally friendly protocol for the epoxidation of olefins and alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones in the presence of hydroxyapatite as catalyst using hydrogen peroxide is described. The catalyst is active and reusable for the selective epoxidation of a variety of olefins and olefinic ketones under a relatively mild condition. It is also found that the reactivity of less reactive enones can be significantly improved by the addition of a surfactant when methanol is employed as the solvent. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.