Design and physicochemical characterization of magnetic nano-dendritic catalysts: a novel approach for vitamin K3 selective production

High pollution, low-productivity, formation of by-products, and costly recovery of the vitamin are the challenges in common vitamin K₃ synthesis methods on the industrial scale. These have encouraged us to design and characterize novel magnetic dendrimer nanoparticles based on silica-coated iron oxide (SCIO-(l5/l8)-G_2.0) for nano-encapsulation of Pd, Mn, and Co to highly efficiently selectively synthesize vitamin K₃. The CHN, BET, ICP, AAS, TEM, FESEM, TGA, DLS, EDS and XPS techniques were employed to intensively identify the obtained dendritic catalysts. Furthermore, the chemical stability of dendritic catalysts and influence of four various experimental factors were assessed by long-term study and response surface methodology analysis, respectively. The characterization results confirmed that all dendritic catalysts have a quasi-spherical morphology with mean size 20–30 nm, which could provide abundant active sites, high specific surface area and also increase the contact efficiency between the active sites and reactants. These results illustrated that the catalytic efficiency (TOF) depend strongly on the chemical structures as well as Lewis sites and natures (SCIO-l8-G_2.0-Pd(II)?>?SCIO-l8-G_2.0-Co(II)?>?SCIO-l8-G_2.0-Mn(II)?>?SCIO-l5-G_2.0-Pd(II)).

Graphical abstract