Catalytic reactions fine chemical synthesis

Many standard reactions that are widely applied in the production of fine chemicals employ. strong mineral or Lewis acids, such as sulphuric acid and aluminium chloride, often in stoichiometric quantities. This generates waste streams containing large amounts of spent acid, which cannot easily be recovered and recycled. Replacement of these soluble mineral and Lewis acids by recyclable. solid acids, such as zeolites, acid clays, and related materials, would represent a major breakthrough, especially if they functioned in truly catalytic quantities. Consequently, the application of solid acids in fine chemicals synthesis is currently the focus of much attention (Downing et al., 1997). 

We showed that the application of PEG/CO2 biphasic catalysis is also possible in aerobic oxidations of alcohols [15]. With regard to environmental aspects it is important to develop sustainable catalytic technologies for oxidations with molecular oxygen in fine chemicals synthesis, as conventional reactions often generate large amoimts of heavy metal and solvent waste. In the biphasic system, palladium nanoparticles can be used as catalysts for oxidation reactions because the PEG phase both stabilises the catalyst particles and enables product extraction with SCCO2. 

As for heterogeneous olefin polymerization catalysis, the activity of rare-earth metal catalysts may be also enhanced in organic transformations by the use of silica supports or other carriers [7]. Indeed, several catalytic C-C and C-X (with X = H/D, Si, O) bond formation reactions as weU as functional group transformations witness to the potential of SOLn/AnC-based heterogeneous catalysts for fine chemical synthesis. 

The unique properties of zeolites and other micro- or mesoporous solids that may favour their application to fine chemical synthesis are (1) the compatibility between the size and shape of their channels or cavities with the size of the reactants and/or products (generally referred to as molecular shape selectivity) that may direct the reaction away from the thermodynamically favoured route (2) the occurrence of confinement effects increasing the concentration of reactants near the catalytic sites and (3) the ability to tune their catalytic properties (acidic, basic, or other) via various treatments as described in this Volume. 

Three-phase catalytic membrane reactor systems, in our opinion, show significant promise, for near term application to hydrogenation reactions for fine chemicals synthesis. These reactions generally require mild operating conditions which will place less stringent requirements on the available and future commercial membranes. 

Catalytic liquid phase semihydrogenation of acetylenes is an important industrial and laboratory reaction, especially in fine chemical synthesis [1]. The use of supported metal catalysts for this selective hydrogenation readily facilitates the separation of organic products from the catalyst. However, liquid phase reactions with supported catalysts tend towards mass transport limitation [2] and, therefore, the support particles should be between 1 and 10 pm in size this avoids transport limitations and separation problems. With support particles of this size high temperature reduction in a flow of H2 gas is very difficult and to avoid this step it is possible to prepare supported metal particles by decomposing organometallic compounds under mild conditions [3-5]. 

This chapter explores some of the issues associated with commercialising catalytic synthesis and provides two examples of where metal catalysed carbon-carbon bond forming reactions are being used in industrial fine chemical synthesis. Other reviews detailing important industrial carbon-carbon bond forming reactions are available.[1]... 

Catalytic behaviors of solid base catalysts for fine chemicals synthesis as well as the fundamental reactions are described. The reactions included are double bond isomerization of olefins, addition of hydrogen and amines to conjugated dienes, dehydration, dehydrogenation, reduction, alkylation, aldol addition and condensation, Wittig-Horner and Knoevenagel reactions, dehydrocyclodimerization, and ring transformation. The characteristic features of different types of solid base catalysts, zeolites, metal oxides, solid superbases and non metal-oxides, are summarized. 

Most of the reported microstructured gas-liquid-solid reactors concern catalytic hydrogenations (Table 8.2). This is because hydrogenation reactions represent about 20% of all the reaction steps in a typical fine chemical synthesis. Catalytic hydrogenations are fast and highly exothermic reactions. Consequently, reactor performance and product selectivity are strongly influenced by mass transfer, and heat evacuation is an important issue. Both problems may be overcome using microstructured devices. 

One area which is subject to intense effort is the synthesis of asymmetric molecules. One current approach employs templates which are not reused but work is underway both to develop templates which can be regenerated and to find additional truly catalytic routes. Fine chemical manufacture presents challenges which are not present for many bulk chemicals. For example, gas phase reactions are often not an option due to volatility constraints and, even in solution, the thermal stability of reagents or products may constrain reaction temperature. Production volumes and the range of different products required have led to the use... 

A significant portion of the reaction steps in a typical fine chemical synthesis are catalytic hydrogenations, generally limited by resistances to mass and heat transport Large surface-to-volume ratios of microreactors would greatly benefit chemical... 

The presented catalytic results support their unique behavior in a broad area of organic reactions as, for example, biochemical synthesis from renewable raw materials or fine chemical synthesis. Irrespective of the synthesis approach, the use of nanoscopic fluorides as catalysts or catalytically functional support offers not only improved efficiency but also additional green elements in complete agreement with the current trends of the twenty-first-century chemistry. 

In this chapter the potential of nanostructured metal systems in catalysis and the production of fine chemicals has been underlined. The crucial role of particle size in determining the activity and selectivity of the catalytic systems has been pointed out several examples of important reactions have been presented and the reaction conditions also described. Metal Vapor Synthesis has proved to be a powerful tool for the generation of catalytically active microclusters SMA and nanoparticles. SMA are unique homogeneous catalytic precursors and they can be very convenient starting materials for the gentle deposition of catalytically active metal nanoparticles of controlled size. 

Industrial applications of zeolites cover a broad range of technological processes from oil upgrading, via petrochemical transformations up to synthesis of fine chemicals [1,2]. These processes clearly benefit from zeolite well-defined microporous structures providing a possibility of reaction control via shape selectivity [3,4] and acidity [5]. Catalytic reactions, namely transformations of aromatic hydrocarbons via alkylation, isomerization, disproportionation and transalkylation [2], are not only of industrial importance but can also be used to assess the structural features of zeolites [6] especially when combined with the investigation of their acidic properties [7]. A high diversity of zeolitic structures provides us with the opportunity to correlate the acidity, activity and selectivity of different structural types of zeolites. 

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