Tribromide ion immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles as an efficient catalyst for the rapid and chemoselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides

Tris(tetraalkyl ammonium tribromide) immobilized on Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (Br-3-Fe3O4) is a stable, green, and magnetically recoverable source of bromine and used as an efficient nanocatalyst for the clean and rapid oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), with short reaction times in good to high yields under solvent-free conditions. After completing reactions, the catalyst was easily separated using an external magnetic field from the reaction mixture and reused for several consecutive runs without significant loss of its catalytic efficiency. The nanomagnetically catalyst was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, TGA, VSM, XRD, TEM and SEM.