Immobilization of chromium and manganese Schiff base complexes by postgrafting of ligand then metal salts on the walls of mesoporous MCM-41 functionalized with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane is described. Characterization of the resulting heterogeneous catalysts by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) techniques indicated successful grafting of these two complexes inside the nanochannels of MCM-41. The complexes were found to be efficient, selective catalysts for oxidation of various sulfides to sulfoxides and oxidative coupling of thiols to corresponding disulfides using H2O2 as oxidant at room temperature. The recycling results of these heterogeneous catalysts showed good recyclability without significant loss of activity or selectivity in successive runs, indicating that the Cr and Mn Schiff base complexes supported on nanoporous MCM-41 remained intact and the coordination environments were not altered during the reaction.
