Catalysis by Sol-Gels An Advanced Technology for Organic Chemistry

1 Catalysis by Sol-Gels An Advanced Technology for Organic Chemistry 

The pharmaceutical industry produces between 25 and 100 kg or more of waste for every kilogram of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufactured.1 According to a leading practitioner of the industry, the potential waste coproduced with APIs is in the range of 500 million to 2 billion kg per year. Even at a nominal disposal cost of 1 per kg, the potential savings just in waste avoidance is significant faced to the pharmaceutical industry annual sales (almost 500 billion in 2003). 2 

The reason for this is mostly rooted in the fact that historically the fine chemicals industry is a product (and not process) oriented industry, i.e. it focuses on the development of new products to maximize revenues in the 

Silica-Based Materials for Advanced Chemical Applications By Mario Pagliaro Mario Pagliaro 2009 

Some of the most remarkable achievements include microencapsulation in polystyrenes such as entrapped 0s04 for olefin hydroxylation (exploiting the interaction between n-electrons of benzene rings of the polystyrenes used as polymer backbones and the vacant orbitals of the catalysts) 5 polyurea-entrapped palladium (PdEnCat)6 for a multiplicity of C C forming reactions and the use of carboxylic acid-functionalized polymer (FibreCat).7 In general, however, metal leaching cannot be avoided. The PdEnCat catalyst, for instance, leaches some 4% of palladium per catalytic reaction run. 

---

Ciriminna, R. Pagliaro, M., Catalysis by sol-gels An advanced technology for organic chemistry. 

---