Catalysts separation, fluorous biphasic

The term fluorous biphase has been proposed to cover fully fluorinated hydrocarbon solvents (or other fluorinated inert materials, for example ethers) that are immiscible with organic solvents at ambient conditions. Like ionic liquids the ideal concept is that reactants and catalysts would be soluble in the (relatively high-boiling) fluorous phase under reaction conditions but that products would readily separate into a distinct phase at ambient conditions (Figure 5.5). 

The use of thermomorphic systems has recently been studied as a way of achieving catalyst separation in homogeneous catalysis. For example, a biphasic hydroformylation catalyst system was developed to take advantage of the unusual solvent characteristics of perfluorocarbons combined with typical organic solvents (4). Fluorous/organic mixtures such as perfiuoromethylcyclohexane... 

Recently, the fluorous biphasic separation technique has been enriched with two new developments, both of which were demonstrated in hydrogenation. The need for a fluorous solvent can be eliminated by using fluorous silica as a fluorous catalyst scavenger. In liquid-liquid biphasic systems, reversible expan-... 

I. T. Horvath, J. R abai, Facile Catalyst Separation without Water Fluorous Biphase Hydroformylation of Olefins , Science 1994, 266, 72. 

R. H. Fish, Fluorous Biphasic Catalysis A New Paradigm for the Separation of Homogeneous Catalysts from their Reaction Substrates and products , Chem. Fur. J. 1999, 5,1677. 

If nonvolatile liquids are to be used to avoid the problems associated with volatile organic solvents, then it is very desirable that there is some convenient way of recovering the reaction products from the liquid. This approach is used in the biphasic systems described in Chapters 2-5. In the fluorous biphase (Chapter 3), reagents and catalysts are fine-tuned by adding perfluoroalkyl chains, known as ponytails , to ensure that only those chemicals will mix with the fluorous layer. Purification is simply a matter of separating the two phases. Transition metal catalysts with fluorous ligands will remain in the fluorous phase, and the whole catalyst-solvent mixture may be reused for another batch of reactions, as shown schematically in Figure 1.20b. 

A similar reaction has been conducted under fluorous biphasic conditions, using a perfluoroalkylated bipyridine as ligand to ensure that the copper species resides in the fluorous phase [22], The oxidation of a range of primary alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes was found to be possible, an example of which is shown in Scheme 9.11. The catalyst could be successfully recycled by phase separation, with analytically pure products being isolated even after... 

Following the publication of the first example of fluorous biphase catalysis by Horvath and Rabai in 1994 [1], the immediate focus was to develop catalysts that would exhibit very biased partition coefficients with respect to fluorous and organic solvents. Such liquids are normally immiscible at room temperature. This was done by attaching ponytails of the formula (CH2)m(CF2) -iCF3 (abbreviated (CH2)mRf )> including arrays emanating from silicon atoms [2]. Catalysis was then effected at elevated temperatures, where fluorous and organic solvents are commonly miscible, with prod-uct/catalysis separation at the low-temperature two-phase limit. 

Recently a fluorous biphase system, a mixture of perfluorocarbon and hydrocarbon, was recommended for performing homogeneous catalytic reactions.22 At the higher reaction temperature miscibility of the biphase system takes place. When the reaction is finished the temperature is lowered, phase separation occurs and the catalyst can easily be isolated from one layer. 

Figure 5.1. Separation scheme to recycle a homogeneous metal catalyst in a typical fluorous biphasic system (FBS).

Horvath, I.T. and Rabai, J. (1994) Facile catalyst separation without water fluorous biphase hydroformylation of olefins. Science, 266, 72. 

Horvath, I.T., Kiss, G., Cook, R.A., Bond, J.E., Stevens, P.A., Rabai, J. and Mozeleski, E.J. (1998) Molecular engineering in homogeneous catalysis one-phase catalysis coupled with biphase catalyst separation. The fluorous-soluble HRh(CO) P[CH2CH2(CF2)5CF3]3 3 hydroformylation system. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 120, 3133. 

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