Alkenes ionic hydrogenation

The use of ionic liquids has been successfully studied in many transition metal-catalyzed hydrogenation reactions, ranging from simple alkene hydrogenation to asymmetric examples. To date, almost all applications have included procedures of multiphase catalysis with the transition-metal complex being immobilized in the ionic liquid by its ionic nature or by means of an ionic (or highly polar) ligand. 

Biphasic systems containing an ionic liquid and supercritical CO2 have been used effectively for catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes. The ionic liquid phase containing the catalyst could be reused (2/6). 

Hydrogenation of alkenes.1 Ionic hydrogenation of alkenes has generally been conducted with a trialkylsilane and an acid no stronger than trifluoroacetic acid. 

Hydrogen halides also add to alkynes. The addition of HBr to alkjmes can be difficult to interpret because (as with alkenes) both ionic and free radical mechanisms may occur, and the free radical process can be difficult to suppress. Reaction of HBr with propjme (63) in the liquid phase at —78°C led to the formation of (Z)-l-bromopropene (64, equation 9.63), indicating stereoselective anti addition. When the reaction was carried out at room temperature, however, a mixture of Z (64) and (65) isomers was obtained (equation 9.64). The results suggested that addition of a bromine atom to propyne produces the vinyl radical 66, which abstracts a hydrogen from HBr to produce 64 at -78°C but which can isomerize (with Eg > 17kcal/mol) to the radical 67 at room temperature. 

The alkene is allowed to react at low temperatures with a mixture of aqueous hydrogen peroxide, base, and a co-solvent to give a low conversion of the alkene (29). These conditions permit reaction of the water-insoluble alkene and minimise the subsequent ionic reactions of the epoxide product. Phase-transfer techniques have been employed (30). A variation of this scheme using a peroxycarbimic acid has been reported (31). 

The anti-Markownikoff addition of hydrogen bromide to alkenes was one of the earliest free-radical reactions to be put on a firm mechanistic basis. In the presence of a suitable initiator, such as a peroxide, a radical-chain mechanism becomes competitive with the ionic mechanism for addition of hydrogen bromide ... 

The strategy of using two phases, one of which is an aqueous phase, has now been extended to fluorous . systems where perfluorinated solvents are used which are immiscible with many organic reactants nonaqueous ionic liquids have also been considered. Thus, toluene and fluorosolvents form two phases at room temperature but are soluble at 64 °C, and therefore,. solvent separation becomes easy (Klement et ai, 1997). For hydrogenation and oxo reactions, however, these systems are unlikely to compete with two-phase systems involving an aqueous pha.se. Recent work of Richier et al. (2000) refers to high rates of hydrogenation of alkenes with fluoro versions of Wilkinson s catalyst. De Wolf et al. (1999) have discussed the application and potential of fluorous phase separation techniques for soluble catalysts. 

Alkenes to Alkanes. The ionic hydrogenation of many compounds containing carbon-carbon double bonds is effected with the aid of strong acids and organosilicon hydrides following the n-route outlined in Eq. 2. A number of factors are important to the successful application of this method. These include the degree and type of substituents located around the double bond as well as the nature and concentrations of the acid and the organosilicon hydride and the reaction conditions that are employed. 

Trisubstituted Alkenes. With very few exceptions, trisubstituted alkenes that are exposed to Brpnsted acids and organosilicon hydrides rapidly undergo ionic hydrogenations to give reduced products in high yields. This is best illustrated by the broad variety of reaction conditions under which the benchmark compound 1-methylcyclohexene is reduced to methylcyclohexane.134 146,192 202 203 207-210 214 234 When 1-methylcyclohexene is reduced with one equivalent of deuterated triethylsilane and two equivalents of trifluoroacetic acid at 50°, methylcyclohexane-... 

Exceptions to the generally facile ionic hydrogenation of trisubstituted alkenes include the resistance of both 2-methyl-1-nitropropene (R = NO2) and 3,3-dimeth-ylacrylic acid (R = CO2H) to the action of a mixture of triethylsilane and excess trifluoroacetic acid at 50° (Eq. 85).234 The failure to undergo reduction is clearly related to the unfavorable effects caused by the electron-withdrawing substituents on the energies of the required carbocation intermediates. 

Tetrasubstituted Alkenes. Tetrasubstituted alkenes lacking electron-withdrawing substituents undergo facile ionic hydrogenation to alkanes in very good yields. Simple examples include 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene,208,214 1,2-dimethyl-cyclopentene, 1,2-dimethylcyclohexene,229 and A9(10)-octalin.126,204,212... 

Ionic hydrogenations of C=C bonds generally work well only in cases where a tertiary or aryl-substituted carbenium ion can be formed through protonation of the C=C bond. Alkenes that give a tertiary carbenium ion upon protonation include 1,1-disubstituted, tri-substituted and tetra-substituted alkenes, and each of these are usually hydrogenated by ionic hydrogenation methods in high yields. 

Stoichiometric Ionic Hydrogenation of Alkenes with Metal Hydrides as the Hydride Donor... 

Casey has suggested that the hydrogenation of alkenes by Shvo s catalyst may proceed by a mechanism involving loss of CO from the Ru-hydride complex, and coordination of the alkene. Insertion of the alkene into the Ru-H bond would give a ruthenium alkyl complex that can be cleaved by H2 to produce the alkane [75], If this is correct, it adds further to the remarkable chemistry of this series of Shvo complexes, if the same complex hydrogenates ketones by an ionic mechanism but hydrogenates alkenes by a conventional insertion pathway. 

Much emphasis has been placed in recent times on easily recoverable liquid bi-phasic catalysts, including metal clusters in nonconventional solvents. For instance, aqueous solutions of the complexes [Ru3(CO)12.x(TPPTS)x] (x=l, 2, 3 TPPTS = triphenylphosphine-trisulfonate, P(m-C6H4S03Na)3) catalyze the hydrogenation of simple alkenes (1-octene, cyclohexene, styrene) at 60°C and 60 bar H2 at TOF up to 500 h 1 [24], while [Ru i(CO)C (TPPMS) >,] (TPPMS = triphenylphos-phine-monosulfonate, PPh2(m-C6H4S03Na) is an efficient catalyst precursor for the aqueous hydrogenation of the C=C bond of acrylic acid (TOF 780 h 1 at 40 °C and 3 bar H2) and other activated alkenes [25]. The same catalysts proved to be poorly active in room temperature ionic liquids such as [bmim][BF4] (bmim= Tbutyl-3-methylimidazolium). No details about the active species involved are known at this point. 

The first example of biphasic catalysis was actually described for an ionic liquid system. In 1972, one year before Manassen proposed aqueous-organic biphasic catalysis [1], Par shall reported that the hydrogenation and alkoxycarbonylation of alkenes could be catalysed by PtCh when dissolved in tetraalkylammonium chloride/tin dichloride at temperatures of less than 100 °C [2], It was even noted that the product could be separated by decantation or distillation. Since this nascent study, synthetic chemistry in ionic liquids has developed at an incredible rate. In this chapter, we explore the different types of ionic liquids available and assess the factors that give rise to their low melting points. This is followed by an evaluation of synthetic methods used to prepare ionic liquids and the problems associated with these methods. The physical properties of ionic liquids are then described and a summary of the properties of ionic liquids that are attractive to clean synthesis is then given. The techniques that have been developed to improve catalyst solubility in ionic liquids to prevent leaching into the organic phase are also covered. 

Catalysts other than homogeneous (molecular) compounds such as nanoparticles have been used in ionic liquids. For example, iridium nanoparticles prepared from the reduction of [IrCl(cod)2] (cod = cyclooctadiene) with H2 in [bmim][PF6] catalyses the hydrogenation of a number of alkenes under bipha-sic conditions [27], The catalytic activity of these nanoparticles is significantly more effective than many molecular transition metal catalysts operating under similar conditions. 

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