Novel organic–inorganic hybrid heterogeneous catalysts containing cobalt(II) and iron(III) Schiff base complexes, grafted on the internal surface of MCM-41 pores were prepared by introducing a metal salt into a mesoporous silica functionalized with a Schiff base ligand. The chemical and physical properties of the catalysts were investigated by BET, TGA, XRD, FT-IR, and TEM techniques. These complexes were found to be efcient, selective catalysts for the oxidation of various sulfdes to sulfoxides and oxidative coupling of thiols to their corresponding disulfdes with urea hydrogen peroxide in excellent yield at room temperature. The designed catalytic system prevents effectively the overoxidation of sulfdes and thiols to sulfoxides and sulfones, respectively. Also the heterogeneous catalysts can be recovered easily and reused many times without signifcant loss of activity and selectivity.
