Cobalt-Tetraamide-Phthalocyanine Immobilized on Fe(3)O(4)/Chitosan Microspheres as an Efficient Catalyst for Baeyer–Villiger Oxidation

[Image: see text] Cobalt-Tetraamide-Phthalocyanine (CoTaPc) immobilized onto magnetic Fe(3)O(4) chitosan microspheres (Fe(3)O(4)/CTO) was synthesized via a simple immersion method, which is an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of cyclic ketones to lactones with O(2)/benzaldehyde as the oxidant. The CoTaPc-Fe(3)O(4)/CTO catalyst was applied for the first time in the Baeyer–Villiger (B–V) oxidation reaction. Characterization results obtained from X-ray diffraction, UV–vis, Fourier transform infrared, and scanning electron microscopy showed that the combination of CoTaPc and magnetic Fe(3)O(4)/CTO microspheres was achieved. The catalyst could be easily separated from the reaction system with an external magnet and reused several times without the remarkable loss of activity. In addition, a possible radical mechanism for the B–V oxidation in this catalytic system is proposed and verified by controlled experiments.