Alkenes catalytic hydration

Catalytic hydration and alcoholation of unsaturated compounds such as alkenes or alkynes would be a high value-adding step in the synthesis of compounds of complicated structure as well as in the large-scale production of industrially useful simple compounds. The activation of the O-H bond of water, alcohol, or carboxylic acid by transihon metals is relevant to a variety of such catalytic processes. 

The general reaction for the catalytic hydration of an alkene to produce an alcohol is shown in Figure 3-6, and the mechanism is in Figure 3 7. This process is an excimple of a Markovnikov addition (as seen in Organic Chemistry 1). 

Catalytic conversions of allenes are sometimes considered models for catalytic reactions of alkenes, even though allene reactivity is more closely comparable to that of alkynes rather than alkenes. The catalytic hydration of allenes was achieved by means of a cationic gold(I) complex with a carbene steering ligand, (IPr)AuCl/ AgOTf (5 mol%), in dioxane (rt, 4—9 h) in fair yield [180]. Attack of water is selective for the terminal carbons, whereas regioselectivity in nonsymmetric substrates is controlled by steric, electronic, and solvation factors. 

Jeaiseai CM, Trogler WC (1986) Catalytic hydration of terminal alkenes to primary alcohols. Science 233 1069-1071... 

The hydration of propylene with sulfuric acid catalyst in high-temperature water was investigated using a flow reaction system.31 The major product is isopropanol. A biopolymer-metal complex, wool-supported palladium-iron complex (wool-Pd-Fe), has been found to be a highly active catalyst for the hydration of some alkenes to the corresponding alcohols. The yield is greatly affected by the Pd/Fe molar ratio in the wool-Pd-Fe complex catalyst and the catalyst can be reused several times without remarkable change in the catalytic activity.32... 

Among other addition reactions dienes undergo catalytic hydrogeneration (1,2- and 1,4-), epoxidation (1,2- only, and more slowly than the corresponding simple alkenes), but they seldom undergo hydration. 

Alcohols may be prepared (1) by hydration of alkenes (1) in presence of an acid and (11) by hydroboratlon-oxidatlon reaction (2) from carbonyl compounds by (1) catalytic reduction and (11) the action of Grignard reagents. Phenols may be prepared by (1) substitution of (1) halogen atom In haloarenes and (11) sulphonic acid group In aiyl sulphonic acids, by -OH group (2) by hydrolysis of diazonium salts and (3) industrially from cumene. 

Hydration means, in general, addition of the elements of water to a substance. Most of these reactions are non-catalytic or homogeneously catalysed processes. In this section, only hydration of olefins to alcohols, of acetylene to acetaldehyde, and of alkene oxides to glycols will be treated, since they are typical reactions where the application of solid catalysts has become important. 

The pioneer work in this field was carried out on polystyrene-supported acid catalysts [161]. Thereafter, several works on the use of sulfonic, strong acidic cation exchangers as acid catalysts were reported for alkylation, hydration, etherification, esterification, cleavage of ether bonds, dehydration, and aldol condensation [162,168-171], Besides, industrial applications of these materials were evaluated with reactions related to the chemistry of alkenes, that is, alkylation, isomerization, oligomerization, and acylation. [163,169], Also, Nation, an acid resin which has an acid strength equivalent to concentrated sulfuric acid, can be applied as an acid catalyst. It is used for the alkylation of aromatics with olefins in the liquid or gas phases and other reactions however, due to its low surface area, the Nation resin has relatively low catalytic activity in gas-phase reactions or liquid-phase processes where a nonpolar reactant or solvent is employed [166],... 

For commercial processes, formed supports are more useful. Compared with other supports, fumed oxide supports showed new catalytic effects [41]. Some intensively investigated applications for these supports are abstracted in the following. SiC>2 pellets have been successfully introduced in a new generation of precious metal supports in vinylacetate monomer production [42]. This resulted in better selcctivities and an up to 50% higher space-time yield compared with supports based on natural alumo-silicates. In alkene hydration fumed silica pellets serve as a support for phosphoric acid. In this case, an increased catalyst lifetime and a higher space-time yield were observed [43]. Pyrogenic TiC>2 powder can be used as a starting material for the manufacture of monolithic catalysts [44] for the selective reduction of NOv with ammonia. 

The dihydrido complex [RhH2Cl(PPh3)2] is a very important intermediate in the homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes.20 The monohydrido complexes (Table 63) can be made by the oxidative addition of HY species to rhodium(I) complexes (equation 187). Similar complexes can be obtained when bulky tertiary phosphines are allowed to react with alcoholic solutions of hydrated rhodium trichloride.268 269... 

Catalytic effects in the acid-catalysed hydration of the aryl alkenes (8) and (9) have been studied, and photohydration of these alkenes occurs via the Si state. The hydroxyisoflavenes (10) are converted photochemically into the benzofurobenzofurans (11) on irradiation in methanol. The actual mechanism of the process is not known and could involve either of the intermediates (12) or (13). 

The concept of TRPTC provides a reasonable explanation for the satisfactory catalytic reactivity of Rh/nonionic phosphine complexes in the case of the two-phase hydroformylation of higher olefins. At a temperature lower than the cloud point, a nonionic phosphine-modified rhodium catalyst would remain in the aqueous phase since the partition of the catalyst between water and a nonpolar aprotic organic solvent strongly favors the aqueous phase. On heating to a temperature higher than the cloud point, however, the catalyst loses its hydrate shell, transfers into the organic phase and then catalyzes the transformation of alkenes to aide-... 

HPA is very soluble in oxygen-containing polar solvents such as water, alcohol, ether, and ketone. In these polar solvents, HPA works as an efficient acid catalyst for alkene hydration, the Prins reaction, nucleophilic cleavage of alicyclic and cyclic ethers, esterification, hydrolysis, transesterification, and acetalization. The catalytic activity of HPA in these reactions is much higher than that of ordinary protonic acids such as sulfuric acid and p-toluenesulfonic acid, and the activation energies of the HPA-catalyzed reactions are remarkably reduced, owing to stabilization of the cationic reaction intermediates by the heteropoly anion [1,4]. 

Aryl ketones. Benzyl alcohols and alkenes are united by a catalytic reaction using polymeric phosphine ligated RhClj hydrate. 

As with permanganate oxidations, a-hydroxy ketones can be formed as side products. In some cases, structural features make the osmium complex relatively unstable, and in an aqueous medium it can react with water to give a hydroxy-hydrate, which is then converted to an a-keto alcohol. Sharpless et al. developed a procedure that used tert-butyl hydroperoxide with a catalytic amount of osmium tetroxide,367 in the presence of tetraethylammonium hydroxide (EtqN" " OH ). The procedure gave improved yields of the cis-diol and a little a-hydroxyketone, as shown in the conversion of oct-(4 )-ene to a mixture of 258 and 259 in 73% yield. This method is more reliable for oxidation of tri- and tetrasubstituted alkenes than the Upjohn procedure. The reaction was not suitable for base sensitive alkenes, but later work showed that changing the solvent to acetone allowed the use of tetraethylammonium acetate (Et4NOAc) 68 for the hydroxylation of sensitive alkenes such as ethyl crotonate. 

Hydrogenation. Hydrated NiCl2 and Li with a catalytic amount of naphthalene form a reducing agent for alkenes and alkynes. ... 

Mechanistic hypotheses play an important role in developing new catalytic and selective heterofunctionalizations of alkenes. Two basic reaction cycles for metal-catalyzed hydroalkoxylation (and hydration, for R = H) of alkenes can be postulated (Scheme 2). One pathway leads to Markovnikov products via activation of the nucleophile, oxy-metallation, and protonolysis (hydro-de-metallation) (Scheme 2a). Alternatively to the inner sphere syn-oxymetallation depicted in Scheme 2a, external anti-attack of the nucleophUe to coordinated olefin is plausible. The oxidation state of the metal remains constant in this cycle. The alternative hydrometallation pathway (Scheme 2b) proceeds via oxidative addition of the H-OR bond, hydrometallation of the olefin, and reductive elimination to the anti-Markovnikov addition product [3,4]. 

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