By Titanium Catalysts

The catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons with peroxides, especially the epoxidation of olefins, in liquid phase by titanium catalysts is one of the most actively investigated reactions (60). The active species for this epoxidation reaction is usually assumed to be titanium peroxo moieties, derived from four-coordinate titanium and peroxides. However, the isolation of the active intermediate remains a challenge owing to the inherent instability of such species. We have been able to synthesize and stabilize the related cubic p-oxo-silicon-titanium complex (35) by reacting a bulky... 

Scheme 20. Asymmetric oxidation of styrene promoted by titanium catalyst...

Although white lead was the oldest white hiding pigment ia paints, it has been totally replaced by titanium dioxide, which has better covering power and is nontoxic (see Pigments). Nevertheless, basic lead carbonate has many other uses, including as a catalyst for the preparation of polyesters from... 

Olefin isomerization is often catalyzed by titanium. An example is the conversion of vinyl norhornene to the comonomer ethylidenenorhornene (141). The catalyst is a mixture of a sodium suspension, AlCl, and (RO)4Ti or Cp2TiCl2. Although isomerization is slow, the yield is high. The active reagent is doubdess a Ti(III) compound. 

Cocatalysts, such as diethylzinc and triethylboron, can be used to alter the molecular-weight distribution of the polymer (89). The same effect can also be had by varying the transition metal in the catalyst chromium-based catalyst systems produce polyethylenes with intermediate or broad molecular-weight distributions, but titanium catalysts tend to give rather narrow molecular-weight distributions. 

One variation in polyester intermediates that has roused some interest are those prepared by a ring-opening polymerisation of e-caprolactone and methyl-e-caprolactones with titanium catalysts and diol and triol initiators Figure 27.6). 

Yamamoto et al. have reported a chiral helical titanium catalyst, 10, prepared from a binaphthol-derived chiral tetraol and titanium tetraisopropoxide with azeotropic removal of 2-propanol [16] (Scheme 1.22, 1.23, Table 1.9). This is one of the few catalysts which promote the Diels-Alder reaction of a-unsubstituted aldehydes such as acrolein with high enantioselectivity. Acrolein reacts not only with cyclo-pentadiene but also 1,3-cyclohexadiene and l-methoxy-l,3-cyclohexadiene to afford cycloadducts in 96, 81, and 98% ee, respectively. Another noteworthy feature of the titanium catalyst 10 is that the enantioselectivity is not greatly influenced by reaction temperature (96% ee at... 

The Diels-Alder reaction catalyzed by this chiral titanium catalyst 31 has wide generality (Scheme 1.53, 1.54, Table 1.22, 1.23). Acryloyl- and fumaroyl-oxazolidinones react with isoprene giving cycloadducts in high optical purity. 2-Ethylthio-l,3-buta-diene can also be successfully employed as the diene [42]. 

Polystyrene (PS) is the fourth big-volume thermoplastic. Styrene can be polymerized alone or copolymerized with other monomers. It can be polymerized by free radical initiators or using coordination catalysts. Recent work using group 4 metallocene combined with methylalumi-noxane produce stereoregular polymer. When homogeneous titanium catalyst is used, the polymer was predominantly syndiotactic. The heterogeneous titanium catalyst gave predominantly the isotactic. Copolymers with butadiene in a ratio of approximately 1 3 produces SBR, the most important synthetic rubber. 

Diphenol carbonate is produced by the reaction of phosgene and phenol. A new approach to diphenol carbonate and non-phosgene route is by the reaction of CO and methyl nitrite using Pd/alumina. Dimethyl carbonate is formed which is further reacted with phenol in presence of tetraphenox titanium catalyst. Decarbonylation in the liquid phase yields diphenyl carbonate. 

The formation of surface defects of a crystal lattice. It was observed while using crystal compounds of transition metals as catalysts [e.g. as was shown by Arlman (171, 173), for a TiCl3 surface defects appear on the lateral faces of the crystal]. In this case low surface concentration of the propagation centers should be expected, as is illustrated in the case of polymerization by titanium dichloride (158). The observed... 

Several authors suggested mechanisms for esterifications catalyzed by titanium tetraalk-oxides. Bolotina et al.16,221,2221 who studied the polyesterification of 2-ethylhexyl phtha-late with 2-ethylhexanol found the same reaction order with respect to catalyst, acid and alcohol, namely 1 they suggested the following rate-determining step ... 

Metal-induced reductive dimerization of carbonyl compounds is a useful synthetic method for the formation of vicinally functionalized carbon-carbon bonds. For stoichiometric reductive dimerizations, low-valent metals such as aluminum amalgam, titanium, vanadium, zinc, and samarium have been employed. Alternatively, ternary systems consisting of catalytic amounts of a metal salt or metal complex, a chlorosilane, and a stoichiometric co-reductant provide a catalytic method for the formation of pinacols based on reversible redox couples.2 The homocoupling of aldehydes is effected by vanadium or titanium catalysts in the presence of Me3SiCl and Zn or A1 to give the 1,2-diol derivatives high selectivity for the /-isomer is observed in the case of secondary aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes. 

Enichem made one of the most important steps forward in the development of general heterogeneous oxidation catalysts in the early 1990s with the commercialization of titanium silicate (TS-1) catalysts. TS-1 has a structure similar to ZSM-5 in which the aluminium has been replaced by titanium it is prepared by reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate and tetra-ethylorthotitanate in the presence of an organic base such as tetrapropy-lammonium hydroxide. This catalyst is especially useful for oxidation reactions using hydrogen peroxide (Scheme 4.11), from which the only byproduct is water, clean production of hydroquinone being one of the possibilities. 

Hydroalumination of terminal alkenes using EtjAl as the hydride source must be carried out with titanium catalysts [24], since zirconium compounds lead to the formation of alumacyclopentanes [60, 61] (Scheme 2-11) and carbometallated products [62]. Suitable substrates for hydroalumination include styrene, allylnaphthalene and vinylsilanes. Only one of the ethyl groups in EtjAl takes part in these reactions, allowing the synthesis of diethylalkylalanes, which are difficult to obtain by other methods. 

---