Catalysts containing rhodium

Black nickel oxide is used as an oxygen donor in three-way catalysts containing rhodium, platinum, and palladium (143). Three-way catalysts, used in automobiles, oxidize hydrocarbons and CO, and reduce NO The donor quaUty, ie, the abiUty to provide oxygen for the oxidation, results from the capabihty of nickel oxide to chemisorb oxygen (see Exhaust control, automotive). 

Direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol could be achieved using zeolite catalysts containing rhodium, platinum, palladium, or irridium. The oxidizing agent is nitrous oxide, which is unavoidable a byproduct from the oxidation of KA oil (see KA oil, this chapter) to adipic acid using nitric acid as the oxidant. 

The NO + CO reaction is only partially described by the reactions (2)-(7), as there should also be steps to account for the formation of N2O, particularly at lower reaction temperatures. Figure 10.9 shows the rates of CO2, N2O and N2 formation on the (111) surface of rhodium in the form of Arrhenius plots. Comparison with similar measurements on the more open Rh(llO) surface confirms again that the reaction is strongly structure sensitive. As N2O is undesirable, it is important to know under what conditions its formation is minimized. First, the selectivity to N2O, expressed as the ratio given in Eq. (7), decreases drastically at the higher temperatures where the catalyst operates. Secondly, real three-way catalysts contain rhodium particles in the presence of CeO promoters, and these appear to suppress N2O formation [S.H. Oh, J. Catal. 124 (1990) 477]. Finally, N2O undergoes further reaction with CO to give N2 and CO2, which is also catalyzed by rhodium. 

After Breit and Seiche (67) had reported hydroformylation catalysts containing rhodium and bidentate ligands assembled via hydrogen bonding, Dubrovina and Boerner (68) pointed out that the first use of bidentate ligands obtained via hydrogen bonding in catalysis is represented by the supramolecular work on SPO platinum complexes. 

Hydroformylation. Hydroformylation (homogeneous) and Hydroformyla-tion (industrial processes/engineering) constitute separate entries in this Encyclopedia, so there is no need for lengthy treatment of the general questions of this most important catalytic reaction in this section. Several aspects of the field are treated in recent reviews (1,3,5,28,145). Attention is paid only to those features that have direct relevance to the aqueous-organic biphasic nature of the process. With very few exceptions, the catalysts contain rhodium although attempts to use cobalt and platinum complexes have also been described in the literature for specific purposes. 

A detailed study of the chemical structure of mesoporous silica catalysts containing rhodium ligands and nanoparticles was carried out by multidimensional solid-state NMR techniques. 

Hjortkjaer, J., Scurrell, M.S., and Simonsen, P. (1979) Supported liquid-phase hydroformylation catalysts containing rhodium and triphenylphosphine. J. Mol. Catal., 6 (6), 405 20. 

By asymmetric reduction of ketone groups in various copolymers Masuda and Stille obtained a copolymer containing either S or R secondary alcohol groups they used a polymeric catalyst containing rhodium and optically active alcohols. 

EG may also be pioduced via glycolic acid using catalysts containing strong acids (66), cobalt carbonyl (67—69), rhodium oxide (68), or HE solvent (70,71) (see Glycols, ETHYLENE glycol). 

Efficient enantioselective asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral ketones and olefins has been accompHshed under mild reaction conditions at low (0.01— 0.001 mol %) catalyst concentrations using rhodium catalysts containing chiral ligands (140,141). Practical synthesis of several optically active natural... 

With Unsaturated Compounds. The reaction of unsaturated organic compounds with carbon monoxide and molecules containing an active hydrogen atom leads to a variety of interesting organic products. The hydroformylation reaction is the most important member of this class of reactions. When the hydroformylation reaction of ethylene takes place in an aqueous medium, diethyl ketone [96-22-0] is obtained as the principal product instead of propionaldehyde [123-38-6] (59). Ethylene, carbon monoxide, and water also yield propionic acid [79-09-4] under mild conditions (448—468 K and 3—7 MPa or 30—70 atm) using cobalt or rhodium catalysts containing bromide or iodide (60,61). 

Hydroformylation of vinyl acetate to give mainly the branched product in >90% ee has been achieved using a rhodium catalyst containing binaphthol and phosphine ligands anchored to polystyrene. 

By far the most important use of the platinum metals is for catalysis. The largest single use is in automobile catalytic converters. Platinum is the principal catalyst, but catalytic converters also contain rhodium and palladium. These elements also catalyze a wide variety of reactions in the chemical and petroleum industry. For example, platinum metal is the catalyst for ammonia oxidation in the production of nitric acid, as described in Pt gauze, 1200 K... 

The above brown Rh/mesitylene solution (2 ml, containing 6 mg of rhodium/ml) was added to a suspension of Y-AI2O3 (1.2 g, AKZO 000-1.5 E product, dried in an oven before the use) in toluene (10 ml). The mixture was stirred for 24 h at room temperature. The colorless solution was removed and the light-brown solid was washed with -pentane and dried under reduced pressure whereupon the Rh/y-Al203 catalyst, containing 1 wt.% Rh, was obtained. 

In recent years, much attention has been focused on rhodium-mediated carbenoid reactions. One goal has been to understand how the rhodium ligands control reactivity and selectivity, especially in cases in which both addition and insertion reactions are possible. These catalysts contain Rh—Rh bonds but function by mechanisms similar to other transition metal catalysts. 

The points for Ag and Pd-Ag alloys lie on the same straight line, a compensation effect, but the pure Pd point lies above the Pd-Ag line. In fact, the point for pure Pd lies on the line for Pd-Rh alloys, whereas the other pure metal in this series, i.e., rhodium is anomalous, falling well below the Pd-Rh line. Examination of the many compensation effect plots given in Bond s Catalysis by Metals (155) shows that often one or other of the pure metals in a series of catalysts consisting of two metals and their alloys falls off the plot. Examples include CO oxidation and formic acid decomposition over Pd-Au catalysts, parahydrogen conversion (Pt-Cu) and the hydrogenation of acetylene (Cu-Ni, Co-Ni), ethylene (Pt-Cu), and benzene (Cu-Ni). In some cases, where alloy catalysts containing only a small addition of the second component have been studied, then such catalysts are also found to be anomalous, like the pure metal which they approximate in composition. 

The catalyst containing 2.0% Rh, insoluble in organic solvent, was used for hydroformylation of 1-hexene at 80°C and 43 atm of 1/1 H2/CO. The catalyst concentration was 1 mmole Rh per mole of olefin. After 4 hours a 41% yield of aldehyde was obtained, with a 2.5 1 isomer ratio. Some isomerization to internal olefins also occurred. A significant feature was the rhodium concentration of 2 ppm in the product. 

Menthone and camphor undergo asymmetric hydrosilylation to give alkoxysilanes with up to 82% optical purity using neutral rhodium(I) catalysts containing DIOP or neomenthyl- or menthyl-diphenylphos-phine even triphenylphosphine gave about 65% ee (300). Hydrolysis to alcohols was not reported. The ferrocenyl ligands (28, 29) are similarly effective for asymmetric hydrosilylation (255), and could be used for production of the optically active alcohols. 

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