Dendrimer catalyst support

The use of dendrimers as supports to anchor transition metal catalysts has attracted considerable attention over the past decades [48] (see also Chapter 4 of this book). Several groups studied the use of dendrimers immobilised on insoluble supports [49], and this type of material meet the requirements for catalysis in interphases. Alper reported the use of diphosphine functionalised polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers... 

Since the pioneering work on dendritic structures by Vogtle et al.,[28] dendrimers have attracted much attention. The synthesis and investigation of their structural properties became a new field in science. The application of dendrimers as support molecules for homogeneous catalysts was first reported by Van Koten et al. in 1994.[29] Dendrimers have the advantage of having perfect structures unlike polymeric structures and are... 

An interesting novel approach to the synthesis of (metallo)dendrimer catalysts could be the use of random hyperbranched polymers [38]. Obviously, these hyperbranched polymers have comparable but less defined structures, but to arrive at dendrimers with similar sizes, a larger number of preparative steps are required, which may be an economic disadvantage. Furthermore, materials involving heterogeneous supports with well-defined metallodendritic subunits [15] can be a promising future direction giving rise to new types of supramolecu-lar catalysts that can easily be recovered from production streams. 

After activation with MAO (molar ratios [Al] [Zr] = 1000) the polymerization of ethylene has been successfully carried out using the zirconocene functionalized dendrimer at 40 bar ethylene pressure and 70 °C. We obtained high activity and productivity values for the ethylene polymerization and polymers with very high molecular masses in the range of 2 x 10 g/mol. The polydispersity of the polymer is quite low (3.0) indicating the single site character of the catalytically active species. Optimization of this system and study of the mechanism are stiU under investigation. Nevertheless, these preliminary results reveal the suitability of polyphenylene dendrimers as supports for zirconocene catalysts. 

The palladium catalyst supported on the dendrimer with 24 phosphine end groups (2) was used in a CFMR. In the continuous process a solution of allyl trifluoroacetate and sodium diethyl 2-methylmalonate in THF (including -decane as an internal standard) was pumped through the reactor. Figure 4 shows the conversion as a function of the amount of substrate solution (expressed in reactor volumes) pumped through the reactor. The reaction started immediately after the addition of the catalyst, and the maximum conversion was reached after two reactor volumes had passed, whereupon a drop in conversion was observed. It was inferred from the retention of the dendrimer (99.7% in dichloromethane) that the decrease was not caused by dendrimer depletion, and it was therefore ascribed to the... 

When the catalyst is located in the core of a dendrimer, its stability can also be increased by site-isolation effects. Core-functionalized dendritic catalysts supported on a carbosilane backbone were reported by Oosterom et al. 19). A novel route was developed to synthesize dendritic wedges with arylbromide as the focal point. These wedges were divergently coupled to a ferrocenyl diphosphine core to form dppf-like ligands (5). Other core-functionalized phosphine dendritic ligands have also been prepared by the same strategy 20). 

The focus of these studies has been on identifying mild activation conditions to prevent nanoparticle agglomeration. Infrared spectroscopy indicated that titania plays an active role in dendrimer adsorption and decomposition in contrast, adsorption of DENs on silica is dominated by metal-support interactions. Relatively mild (150° C) activation conditions were identified and optimized for Pt and Au catalysts. Comparable conditions yield clean nanoparticles that are active CO oxidation catalysts. Supported Pt catalysts are also active in toluene hydrogenation test reactions. 

Branched phenylacetylene monomers can be used to construct dendrimers on supports. This was accomplished using a triazene tether as a focal point, the reaction triad outlined above, and an AB2 monomer, as seen in Scheme 7.16 As in similar solution-phase convergent dendrimer syntheses, the first step was to prime the periphery of the dendrimer with t-butyl groups by di-coupling of a triazene-tethered dibromoaryl monomer with (di-f-butyl-phenyl)acetylene. In this and all subsequent coupling steps, an excess amount of the monodendron acetylene was used to drive the reaction to completion. The reagents and catalysts were washed away and the excess monodendron was recovered. At the end of the first step, the tri-aryl dendron I-M3-(t-Bu)4 was cleaved from the support (M represents the dendritic monomer unit). Two equivalents of this product were then coupled with the triazene-tethered di-acetylene ary] monomer to produce the heptaaryl dendron I-M7-(r-Bu)8. 

Siloxanes, prepared in 1989 as representatives of silicon-based dendritic molecules ( silicodendrimers ), were the first dendrimers to contain heteroatoms other than the usual ones (N, O, S, halogens) [68]. As with the phosphodendri-mers (Section 4.1.10), their readily modifiable architecture and their pronounced thermostability hold promise of applications, for example, in the form of carbo-silanes as liquid-crystalline materials and catalyst supports. They can be subdivided into a number of basic types and their properties are presented below with the aid of characteristic representatives ... 

For example, POPAM dendrimers of 1,3-diaminopropane type have been used in membrane reactors as supports for palladium-phosphine complexes serving as catalysts for allylic substitution in a continuously operated chemical membrane reactor. Good recovery of the dendritic catalyst support is of advantage in the case of expensive catalyst components [9]. It is accomplished here by ultra-or nanofiltration (Fig. 8.2). 

Abstract Enantioselection in a stoichiometric or catalytic reaction is governed by small increments of free enthalpy of activation, and such transformations are thus in principle suited to assessing dendrimer effects which result from the immobilization of molecular catalysts. Chiral dendrimer catalysts, which possess a high level of structural regularity, molecular monodispersity and well-defined catalytic sites, have been generated either by attachment of achiral complexes to chiral dendrimer structures or by immobilization of chiral catalysts to non-chiral dendrimers. As monodispersed macromolecular supports they provide ideal model systems for less regularly structured but commercially more viable supports such as hyperbranched polymers, and have been successfully employed in continuous-flow membrane reactors. The combination of an efficient control over the environment of the active sites of multi-functional catalysts and their immobilization on an insoluble macromolecular support has resulted in the synthesis of catalytic dendronized polymers. In these, the catalysts are attached in a well-defined way to the dendritic sections, thus ensuring a well-defined microenvironment which is similar to that of the soluble molecular species or at least closely related to the dendrimer catalysts themselves. 

As has been emphasized at the beginning of this overview of asymmetric den-drimer catalysis, the kinetically controlled stereoselection depends on very small increments of free activation enthalpy. It is therefore an excellent sensitive probe for dendrimer effects and will continue to be studied in this fundamental context. As mono dispersed macromolecules, chiral dendrimer catalysts provide ideal model systems for less regularly structured but commercially more viable supports such as hyperbranched polymers. 

The use of dendrimers as supports for homogeneous catalysts was first reported by van Leeuwen and coworkers in 1995 (122). Oligo-carbosilane dendrimers were developed for this purpose (123). The open structure and solubility of dendrimers allow the attached catalysts to behave like... 

Since the pioneering studies reported by van Koten and coworkers in 1994 [20], dendrimers as catalyst supports have been attracting increasing attention. The metaUodendrimers and their catalytic applications have been frequently reported and reviewed [7-15]. As a novel type of soluble macromolecular support, dendrimers feature homogeneous reaction conditions (faster kinetics, accessibility of the metal site, and so on) and enable the application of common analytical techniques such as thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance... 

In general, two strategies can be applied for the construction of chiral dendrimer catalysts (i) chiral metal complex (or organocatalyst) may be incorporated into the core of the dendrimer (Figure 4.1a) or (ii) multiple chiral metal complexes (or organocatalysis) may be located at the periphery of the dendrimer (Figure 4.1b). Recently, hybrids of dendrimer and crosslinked polymer as supports have been developed (Figure 4.1c) [12]. 

In this chapter, we attempt to summarize the recently developed chiral dendrimer catalysts with their chiral catalytically active species located either at the core or at the periphery of the dendritic macromolecular supports. The discussion will also be focused on dendrimer effects and the development of new methodologies for the recovery and reuse of chiral dendrimer catalysts, with special emphasis on their applications in enantioselective synthesis. The published data have been classified according to the type of reachon in each of the following three sections. 

Solid-Supported Chiral Dendrimer Catalysts for Asymmetric Catalysis... 

Despite the advantage of their easy separation, the use of conventional insoluble polymer-supported catalysts often suffered from a reduced catalytic activity and stereoselectivity, due either to diffusion problems or to a change of the preferred conformations within the chiral pocket created by the ligand around the metal center. In order to circumvent these problems, a new class of crosslinked macromolecule-namely dendronized polymers-has been developed and employed as catalyst supports. In general, two types of such solid-supported dendrimer have been reported (i) with the dendrimer as a hnker of the polymer support and (ii) with dendrons attached to the polymer support [12, 113]. 

Solid-Supported Internally Functionalized Chiral Dendrimer Catalysts... 

Based on this concept, Seebach et al. developed the first example of TADDOL-cored dendrimers (Figure 4.41) immobilized in a PS matrix [116]. The resultant internally dendrimer-functionalized polymer beads were loaded with Ti(OiPr)4, leading to a new class of supported Ti-TADDOLate catalysts for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde. Compared to the conventional insoluble polymer-supported Ti-TADDOLate catalysts, these heterogeneous dendrimer catalysts gave much higher catalytic activities, with turnover rates close to those of the soluble analogues. The polymer-supported dendrimer TADDOLs were recovered by simple phase separation and reused for at least 20 runs, with similar catalytic efficiency. 

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