A polyoxometalate (POM)-ionic liquid hybrid has been shown to be an efficient hereogeneous catalyst for the epoxidation of alkenes with hydrogen peroxide.
Scientists from China led by Jun Wang from Nanjing University of Technology, synthesied a hybrid material by anion-exchanging a amino-functionalised ionic liquid cation with Keggin POM-anions. These hybrid nanospheres were then applied to the epoxidation of alkenes with hydrogen peroxide. Previous methods using POM catalysts in this reaction have often suffered from slow reaction rates, complex catalyst preparation 
However, the POM-based ionic hybrid reported by Wang and co-workers, as well as being simple to produce, is an efficient heterogeneous catalyst exhibiting high conversion and selectivity. In addition it can by recycled several times (after simple filtration) without any observable loss in conversion or selectivity. Wang hopes that this new strategy may be extended to more versatile POM-based ionic hybrid catalysts for hydrogen peroxide, heterogeneous-based reactions.
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Polyoxometalate-based amino-functionalized ionic solid catalysts lead to highly efficient heterogeneous epoxidation of alkenes with H2O2, Yan Leng, Jun Wang, Dunru Zhu, Mingjue Zhang, Pingping Zhao, Zhouyang Long and Jun Huang, Green Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15302A
