Molybdenum arsenate crystal: A highly efficient and recyclable catalyst for hydrolysis of ethylene carbonate

•The molybdenum arsenate crystal can provide a suitable catalyst for hydrolysis of ester reactions.•The heterogeneous catalyst displayed high catalytic activity for hydrolysis of ethylene carbonate reactions.•The catalyst can be simply recovered and reused without significant loss of catalytic activity.•The catalyst gave 96.5% conversion under optimized conditions. A simple one-step hydrothermal reaction was employed to synthesize the molybdenum arsenate crystallite catalyst, [{Cu(imi)2}3As3Mo3O15]·H2O (1) (imi=imidazole). The catalyst was characterized using X-ray crystallographic analyses, FT-IR, TGA, XRD, ICP-AES, NH3-TPD and BET techniques. Moreover, we performed evaluation on its catalytic activity towards the hydrolysis of ethylene carbonate to produce ethylene glycol. Interestingly, the conversion of this reaction reaches 96.5% and the selectivity is close to 100% at optimum conditions. No polyoxometalate leaching or framework decomposition was observed and the catalyst can be recovered and reused with slight loss of reactivity under identical reaction conditions.