General Bronsted acid catalysts

Ground-state alkenes generally undergo electrophilic addition with alcohols in the presence of a Bronsted acid catalyst, yielding the Markovnikov product ... 

In general, a Lewis acid catalyzed 1,3 dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with vinyl ethers provides exo isomers predominantly. In fact, the MeAl BINOL catalyzed cycloaddition reaction of ethyl vinyl ether with diaryl nitrone furnished the corresponding product vhth high exo selectivity [121]. However, phosphoramide 6b as the chiral Bronsted acid catalyst exhibited high e-ndo selectivity in the same cycloaddition reaction (see Scheme 3.27). 

Cr-ZSM-5 catalysts prepared by solid-state reaction from different chromium precursors (acetate, chloride, nitrate, sulphate and ammonium dichromate) were studied in the selective ammoxidation of ethylene to acetonitrile. Cr-ZSM-5 catalysts were characterized by chemical analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, FTIR (1500-400 cm 1), N2 physisorption (BET), 27A1 MAS NMR, UV-Visible spectroscopy, NH3-TPD and H2-TPR. For all samples, UV-Visible spectroscopy and H2-TPR results confirmed that both Cr(VI) ions and Cr(III) oxide coexist. TPD of ammonia showed that from the chromium incorporation, it results strong Lewis acid sites formation at the detriment of the initial Bronsted acid sites. The catalyst issued from chromium chloride showed higher activity and selectivity toward acetonitrile. This activity can be assigned to the nature of chromium species formed using this precursor. In general, C r6+ species seem to play a key role in the ammoxidation reaction but Cr203 oxide enhances the deep oxidation. 

This reaction encompasses a number of interesting features (general Brpnsted acid/Bronsted-based catalysis, bifunctional catalysis, enantioselective organoca-talysis, very short hydrogen bonds, similarity to serine protease mechanism, oxyanion hole), and we were able to obtain a complete set of DFT-based data for the entire reaction path, from the starting catalyst-substrate complex to the product complex. 

In the mechanism illustrated in Figure 6, the combination of the redox and acid properties of the catalyst determines the relative contribution for the formation of MA and PA. It is generally accepted that the higher the crystallinity of the VPP, the more selective to PA is the catalyst (3,4,10-12,17,18). Poorly crystalline VPP, like that one formed after the thermal treatment of the precursor (especially when it is carried out under oxidizing conditions), is selective to MA, but non-selective to PA. On the contrary, a fully equilibrated catalyst, characterized by the presence of a well-crystallized VPP, yields PA with a good selectivity. The presence of dopants that alter the crystallinity of VPP may finally affect the MA/PA selectivity ratio (19). Moreover, the surface acidity also influences the distribution of products (17) an increase of Lewis acidity improves the selectivity to PA, while that to MA is positively affected by Bronsted acidity (2). 

Promoters. - Many supported vanadia catalysts also possess secondary metal oxides additives that act as promoters (enhance the reaction rate or improve product selectivity). Some of the typical additives that are found in supported metal oxide catalysts are oxides of W, Nb, Si, P, etc. These secondary metal oxide additives are generally not redox sites and usually possess Lewis and Bronsted acidity.50 Similar to the surface vanadia species, these promoters preferentially anchor to the oxide substrate, below monolayer coverage, to form two-dimensional surface metal oxide species. This is schematically shown in Figure 4. 

The relative sizes of the Hammett p and Bronsted a constants will determine the relative rate of 5-nitrosalicylamide. If intramolecular base catalysis applies, then 5-nitrosalicylamide should hydrolyse more rapidly, since the nitro group will increase the susceptibility of the amide bond to attack by hydroxide ion and increase the efficiency of the phenolic hydroxyl as a general acid catalyst. The value of Jtobs at the plateau region was found to be 18 times smaller for the 5-nitrosalicylamide than for salicylamide a mechanism of intramolecular general base catalysis is, therefore, the preferred mechanism. 

Cince the catalytic activity of synthetic zeolites was first revealed (1, 2), catalytic properties of zeolites have received increasing attention. The role of zeolites as catalysts, together with their catalytic polyfunctionality, results from specific properties of the individual catalytic reaction and of the individual zeolite. These circumstances as well as the different experimental conditions under which they have been studied make it difficult to generalize on the experimental data from zeolite catalysis. As new data have accumulated, new theories about the nature of the catalytic activity of zeolites have evolved (8-9). The most common theories correlate zeolite catalytic activity with their proton-donating and electron-deficient functions. As proton-donating sites or Bronsted acid sites one considers hydroxyl groups of decationized zeolites these are formed by direct substitution of part of the cations for protons on decomposition of NH4+ cations or as a result of hydrolysis after substitution of alkali cations for rare earth cations. As electron-deficient sites or Lewis acid sites one considers usually three-coordinated aluminum atoms, formed as a result of dehydroxylation of H-zeolites by calcination (8,10-13). 

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