Catalyst efficiencies, lanthanide

Yasuda et al. [35] proposed the use of lanthanide oxychlorides as efficient solid catalysts for PC synthesis from supercritical CO and PO without additional organic solvent. Lanthanide oxides generally act as basic catalysts while lanthanide chlorides exhibit Lewis acidity. Thus, the latter provides the synergistic combination of the activation of CO by the Lewis basic sites and the activation of PO by the Lewis acidic (Ln ) sites. 

Skraup/Doebner-von Miller-type reactions with lanthanide catalysts under microwave radiation are efficient for a variety of different anilines. For example, cyclisation of aniline 44 with acetone in the presence of scandium triflate gave the desired product 45 in excellent yield. 

Mn(II) > Mg(II).270 It should be underlined that titanium and zirconium alkoxides are efficient catalysts for both stages of reaction. Lanthanide compounds such as 2,2/-bipyridyl, acetylacetonate, and o-formyl phenolate complexes of Eu(III), La(III), Sm(III), Er(III), and Tb(III) appear to be even more efficient than titanium alkoxides, Ca or Mn acetates, Sb203, and their mixtures.273 Moreover, PET produced with lanthanides has been reported to exhibit better thermal and hydrolytic stability as compared to PET synthesized with the conventional Ca acetate -Sb203 catalytic system.273... 

The discussion of the activation of bonds containing a group 15 element is continued in chapter five. D.K. Wicht and D.S. Glueck discuss the addition of phosphines, R2P-H, phosphites, (R0)2P(=0)H, and phosphine oxides R2P(=0)H to unsaturated substrates. Although the addition of P-H bonds can be sometimes achieved directly, the transition metal-catalyzed reaction is usually faster and may proceed with a different stereochemistry. As in hydrosilylations, palladium and platinum complexes are frequently employed as catalyst precursors for P-H additions to unsaturated hydrocarbons, but (chiral) lanthanide complexes were used with great success for the (enantioselective) addition to heteropolar double bond systems, such as aldehydes and imines whereby pharmaceutically valuable a-hydroxy or a-amino phosphonates were obtained efficiently. 

Jenner investigated the kinetic pressure effect on some specific Michael and Henry reactions and found that the observed activation volumes of the Michael reaction between nitromethane and methyl vinyl ketone are largely dependent on the magnitude of the electrostriction effect, which is highest in the lanthanide-catalyzed reaction and lowest in the base-catalyzed version. In the latter case, the reverse reaction is insensitive to pressure.52 Recently, Kobayashi and co-workers reported a highly efficient Lewis-acid-catalyzed asymmetric Michael addition in water.53 A variety of unsaturated carbonyl derivatives gave selective Michael additions with a-nitrocycloalkanones in water, at room temperature without any added catalyst or in a very dilute aqueous solution of potassium carbonate (Eq. 10.24).54... 

In a different approach three different structurally defined aza-crown ethers were treated with 10 different metal salts in a spatially addressable format in a 96-well microtiter plate, producing 40 catalysts, which were tested in the hydrolysis of /xnitrophenol esters.32 A plate reader was used to assess catalyst activity. A cobalt complex turned out to be the best catalyst. Higher diversity is potentially possible, but this would require an efficient synthetic strategy. This research was extended to include lanthanide-based catalysts in the hydrolysis of phospho-esters of DNA.33... 

Lewis acid catalysis. Anhydrous lanthanide(III) chlorides, particularly SmCl3, can function as low-cost but efficient nonhomogeneous Lewis acid catalysts for aldol and other reactions. More rapid reactions are observed when the soluble but expensive Eu(fod)3 is used as a lanthanide catalyst.1... 

Alumina, alkaline-earth oxides, mixed oxides (spinels), rare-earth oxides, and lanthanide ores are known additives capable of sorbing S-impurities. The properties of these materials can be manipulated to produce catalysts capable of reducing up to -80% S-emissions and meet the refiner needs. It is, however, unlikely that these systems will be capable of satisfying the more stringent environmental S-emission standards expected in the future. Details of the reaction mechanism by which additives and promoters catalyze the oxidative sorption of S-impurities and details of catalyst deactivation have not yet been proposed. This work could provide useful information to help design more efficient S-transfer catalysts. The catalytic control of S-emissions from FCC units has been described in detail in two papers appearing in this volume (46,47) and in the references given (59). 

Stevels WM, Ankone MJK, DijkstraPJ, Feijen J (1996) A versatile and highly efficient catalyst system for the preparation of polyesters based on lanthanide tris(2,6-di-tert-butylphenolate) s and various alcohols. Macromolecules 29 3332-3333... 

Recently, rare-earth metal complexes have attracted considerable attention as initiators for the preparation of PLA via ROP of lactides, and promising results were reported in most cases [94—100]. Group 3 members (e.g. scandium, yttrium) and lanthanides such as lutetium, ytterbium, and samarium have been frequently used to develop catalysts for the ROP of lactide. The principal objectives of applying rare-earth complexes as initiators for the preparation of PLAs were to investigate (1) how the spectator ligands would affect the polymerization dynamics (i.e., reaction kinetics, polymer composition, etc.), and (2) the relative catalytic efficiency of lanthanide(II) and (III) towards ROPs. 

The LLB catalysts described above served an important role in demonstrating the proof of principle for catalysis with lanthanide-BINOL complexes. In addition, they were the first catalysts for the enantioselective nitroaldol reaction and gave respectable selectivities in synthetically useful yields. However, the reactions required at least 3.3 mol % of the catalysts for efficient conversion, and at that loading the reactions are rather slow. Clearly, the need for more effective catalysts is indicated. Consideration of the mechanism for the catalytic asymmetric... 

Heterogeneous diene polymerization catalysts based on modified and unmodified silica-supported lanthanide complexes are known as efficient gas-phase polymerization catalysts for a variety of support materials and activation procedures (see Sect. 9). Metal siloxide complexes M(()SiR3 )x are routinely employed as molecular model systems of such silica-immobilized/ grafted metal centers [196-199]. Structurally authenticated alkylated rare-earth metal siloxide derivatives are scarce, which is surprising given that structural data on a considerable number of alkylated lanthanide alkoxide and aryloxide complexes with a variety of substitution patterns is meanwhile available. 

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