Ionic catalysis

Keywords Heterogeneous catalysis, biphasic catalysis, ionic liquids, task-specific ionic liquids, supported ionic liquid phases... 

Layered materials continue to evince interest because their nonrigid structure permits the intercalation of host molecules or compounds, which give rise to new products with properties of great interest in several fields catalysis, ionic conduction, gas absorption, etc. 

Apart from acidic catalysis, ionic liquids have been intensively tested in the last two decades for the immobilisation of homogeneously dissolved transition metal catalysts. Successful catalyst immobilisation techniques are essential for industrial homogeneous catalysis to solve the problem of catalyst/product separation and to recover and recycle the often very expensive dissolved transition metal complexes. Different immobilisation concepts applying ionic liquids have been developed, including the use of organic-ionic liquid multiphase reaction systems and the use of SILP catalysis. These concepts will be described in the following sections. 

Catalysis in a single fluid phase (liquid, gas or supercritical fluid) is called homogeneous catalysis because the phase in which it occurs is relatively unifonn or homogeneous. The catalyst may be molecular or ionic. Catalysis at an interface (usually a solid surface) is called heterogeneous catalysis, an implication of this tenn is that more than one phase is present in the reactor, and the reactants are usually concentrated in a fluid phase in contact with the catalyst, e.g., a gas in contact with a solid. Most catalysts used in the largest teclmological processes are solids. The tenn catalytic site (or active site) describes the groups on the surface to which reactants bond for catalysis to occur the identities of the catalytic sites are often unknown because most solid surfaces are nonunifonn in stmcture and composition and difficult to characterize well, and the active sites often constitute a small minority of the surface sites. 

The most direct effect of defects on tire properties of a material usually derive from altered ionic conductivity and diffusion properties. So-called superionic conductors materials which have an ionic conductivity comparable to that of molten salts. This h conductivity is due to the presence of defects, which can be introduced thermally or the presence of impurities. Diffusion affects important processes such as corrosion z catalysis. The specific heat capacity is also affected near the melting temperature the h capacity of a defective material is higher than for the equivalent ideal crystal. This refle the fact that the creation of defects is enthalpically unfavourable but is more than comp sated for by the increase in entropy, so leading to an overall decrease in the free energy... 

Structure Modification. Several types of stmctural defects or variants can occur which figure in adsorption and catalysis (/) surface defects due to termination of the crystal surface and hydrolysis of surface cations (2) stmctural defects due to imperfect stacking of the secondary units, which may result in blocked channels (J) ionic species, eg, OH , AIO 2, Na", SiO , may be left stranded in the stmcture during synthesis (4) the cation form, acting as the salt of a weak acid, hydrolyzes in aqueous suspension to produce free hydroxide and cations in solution and (5) hydroxyl groups in place of metal cations may be introduced by ammonium ion exchange, followed by thermal deammoniation. 

The most numerous cases of homogeneous catalysis are by certain ions or metal coordination compounds in aqueous solution and in biochemistry, where enzymes function catalyticaUy. Many ionic effects are known. The hydronium ion and the hydroxyl ion OH" cat-... 

To date a number of reactions have been carried out in ionic liquids [for examples, see Dell Anna et al. J Chem Soc, Chem Commun 434 2002 Nara, Harjani and Salunkhe Tetrahedron Lett 43 1127 2002 Semeril et al. J Chem Soc Chem Commun 146 2002 Buijsman, van Vuuren and Sterrenburg Org Lett 3 3785 2007]. These include Diels-Alder reactions, transition-metal mediated catalysis, e.g. Heck and Suzuki coupling reactions, and olefin metathesis reactions. An example of ionic liquid acceleration of reactions carried out on solid phase is given by Revell and Ganesan [Org Lett 4 3071 2002]. 

T. Welton, Room temperature ionic liquids. Solvents for synthesis and catalysis, Chem Rev 99 2071-2083 1999. C.M. Gordon, New developments in catalysis using ionic liquids, Appl. CatalA General 222 101-117 2001. 

The basic function of lysis processes is to split molecules to permit further treatment. Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction in which water reacts with another substance. In the reaction, the water molecule is ionized while the other compound is split into ionic groups. Photolysis, another lysis process, breaks chemical bonds by irradiating a chemical with ultraviolet light. Catalysis uses a catalyst to achieve bond cleavage. 

Phase-transfer catalysis (Section 22.5) Method for increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by transporting an ionic reactant from an aqueous phase where it is solvated and less reactive to an organic phase where it is not solvated and is more reactive. Typically, the reactant is an anion that is carried to the organic phase as its quaternary ammonium salt. 

Room-temperature ionic liquids, salts with A,A-dialkylimidazolium cations in synthesis and catalysis 99CRV2071. 

Traces of bases such as methylimidazole in the final ionic liquid product can play an unfavorable role in some common applications of ionic liquids (such as bipha-sic catalysis). Many electrophilic catalyst complexes will coordinate the base in an irreversible manner and be deactivated. 

Preparation of ionic liquids for catalysis [BMIM][HS04], [HNR3][HS04] BP Ghemicals, UK Akzo Nobel NV, Netherlands Elemen-tis Specialities, UK 2000 30... 

Transition metal catalysis in liquid/liquid biphasic systems principally requires sufficient solubility and immobilization of the catalysts in the IL phase relative to the extraction phase. Solubilization of metal ions in ILs can be separated into processes, involving the dissolution of simple metal salts (often through coordination with anions from the ionic liquid) and the dissolution of metal coordination complexes, in which the metal coordination sphere remains intact. 

The field of reaction chemistry in ionic liquids was initially confined to the use of chloroaluminate(III) ionic liquids. With the development of neutral ionic liquids in the mid-1990s, the range of reactions that can be performed has expanded rapidly. In this chapter, reactions in both chloroaluminate(III) ionic liquids and in similar Lewis acidic media are described. In addition, stoichiometric reactions, mostly in neutral ionic liquids, are discussed. Review articles by several authors are available, including Welton [1] (reaction chemistry in ionic liquids), Holbrey [2] (properties and phase behavior), Earle [3] (reaction chemistry in ionic liquids), Pagni [4] (reaction chemistry in molten salts), Rooney [5] (physical properties of ionic liquids), Seddon [6, 7] (chloroaluminate(III) ionic liquids and industrial applications), Wasserscheid [8] (catalysis in ionic liquids), Dupont [9] (catalysis in ionic liquids) and Sheldon [10] (catalysis in ionic liquids). 

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