Acetoxylation, with supported catalysts

A number of reactions, principally of olefinic substrates, that can be catalyzed by supported complexes have been studied. These include hydrogenation, hydrosilylation, hydroformylation, polymerization, oxidative hydrolysis, acetoxylation, and carbonylation. Each of these will be considered in turn together with the possibility of carrying out several reactions consecutively using a catalyst containing more than one kind of metal complex. 

It should be noted that heterogeneous palladium acetoxylation catalysts do not contain copper cooxidants, presumably because the support stabilizes the resulting palladium(II) hydride such as (136) and prevents the formation of metallic palladium. The stabilized palladium hydride (136) may react with 02 to give the hydroperoxide (137), which is probably an important intermediate for the regeneration of the initial Pd11 catalyst. 

The in situ regeneration of Pd(II) from Pd(0) should not be counted as being an easy process, and the appropriate solvents, reaction conditions, and oxidants should be selected to carry out smooth catalytic reactions. In many cases, an efficient catalytic cycle is not easy to achieve, and stoichiometric reactions are tolerable only for the synthesis of rather expensive organic compounds in limited quantities. This is a serious limitation of synthetic applications of oxidation reactions involving Pd(II). However it should be pointed out that some Pd(II)-promoted reactions have been developed as commercial processes, in which supported Pd catalysts are used. For example, vinyl acetate, allyl acetate and 1,4-diacetoxy-2-butene are commercially produced by oxidative acetoxylation of ethylene, propylene and butadiene in gas or liquid phases using Pd supported on silica. It is likely that Pd(OAc)2 is generated on the surface of the catalyst by the oxidation of Pd with AcOH and 02, and reacts with alkenes. 

The industrially important acetoxylation consists of the aerobic oxidation of ethylene into vinyl acetate in the presence of acetic acid and acetate. The catalytic cycle can be closed in the same way as with the homogeneous Wacker acetaldehyde catalyst, at least in the older liquid-phase processes (320). Current gas-phase processes invariably use promoted supported palladium particles. Related fundamental work describes the use of palladium with additional activators on a wide variety of supports, such as silica, alumina, aluminosilicates, or activated carbon (321-324). In the presence of promotors, the catalysts are stable for several years (320), but they deactivate when the palladium particles sinter and gradually lose their metal surface area. To compensate for the loss of acetate, it is continuously added to the feed. The commercially used catalysts are Pd/Cd on acid-treated bentonite (montmorillonite) and Pd/Au on silica (320). 

When Pd compounds (PdfOAc) ", Pd2(OAc)i , or Pd3(OAc)e) are used as starting material, even small additions of water (1-3%) to the NaOAc/AcOH solvent give rise to a great deal of acetaldehyde instead of vinyl acetate [11-13]. In contrast to this, the Pd metal catalysts (e. g., supported Pd or Pd black, prepared by H2 reduction of Pd" complexes in combination with NaOAc) provide vinyl ester from alkene and AcOH with high selectivity, regardless of the water content up to 10% [11, 14, 15]. Further differences in the selectivity of reaction (1) with Pd" and Pd° catalysts were found for the oxidative acetoxylation of higher alkenes, viz., propylene, 1-hexene, and cyclohexene [7]. All these facts apparently implied that the alkene activation came from two different origins one from Pd" and another from Pd metal or, more exactly, low-valent Pd clusters formed upon Pd" reduction with H2. 

Charette and coworkers have developed tetraarylphosphonium (TAP)-supported (diacetoxyiodo)benzene 109 (Figure 5.5), which can be used as a recyclable reagent or a catalyst for the a-acetoxylation of ketones [101]. Similarly to the imidazolium-supported [bis(acyloxy)iodo]arene 99, the reduced form of the TAP-supported reagent 109 can be recovered from the reaction mixture by simple filtration after treatment with ether. 

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