Incorporating heterogeneous lacunary Keggin anions as efficient catalysts for solvent-free cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones

Polyoxometalates (POMs) as efficient catalysts can be used a wide range of chemical transformations due to their tunable Brønsted/Lewis-acidity and redox properties. Herein, we reported two hybrid and heterogeneous lacunary Keggin catalysts: (TBA)(7)[PW(11)O(39)] (TBA-PW(11)) and (TBA)(8)[SiW(11)O(39)]·4H(2)O (TBA-SiW(11)) (TBA(+): tetrabutylammonium) in which [XW(11)O(39)](n−) anions were coated by TBA(+) cations. In this form, TBA(+) can easily trap reactants on the surface of the catalysts and increase the catalytic reaction. Therefore, the catalytic performance of both POMs was tested in cyanosilylation of numerous compounds bearing-carbonyl group and trimethylsilyl cyanide under solvent-free conditions. TBA-PW(11) is more effective than TBA-SiW(11), conceivably due to the higher Lewis acidity of the P than the Si center and to the higher accessibility of the metal centers in the framework structure. Noteworthy, the recyclability and heterogeneity of both POMs catalysts were also examined, and the results confirmed that they remain active at least after three recycling procedures.