Higher aqueous-phase catalysts

An interesting new concept of catalyst immobilization is the use of supported aqueous phase catalysts. Here, the catalyst is immobilized in a thin water layer adhered within the pores of a high-surface-area porous support. A new Rh catalyst of this class with ligand 11 is stable, recyclable, and highly selective in the hydroformylation of higher alkenes to linear aldehydes.236... 

Supported aqueous phase (Chapter 3, Section 3.6, Chapter 5, Section 5.2.5) and supported ionic liquid phase catalysts, Chapter 7, Section 7.3) are probably not suitable for use with higher alkenes because the liquid feed slowly dissolves some of the water or ionic liquid changing the nature of the catalyst and leading to catalyst leaching. 

Reactions carried in aqueous multiphase catalysis are accompanied by mass transport steps at the L/L- as well as at the G/L-interface followed by chemical reaction, presumably within the bulk of the catalyst phase. Therefore an evaluation of mass transport rates in relation to the reaction rate is an essential task in order to gain a realistic mathematic expression for the overall reaction rate. Since the volume hold-ups of the liquid phases are the same and water exhibits a higher surface tension, it is obvious that the organic and gas phases are dispersed in the aqueous phase. In terms of the film model there are laminar boundary layers on both sides of an interphase where transport of the substrates takes place due to concentration gradients by diffusion. The overall transport coefficient /cl can then be calculated based on the resistances on both sides of the interphase (Eq. 1) ... 

As mentioned earlier, in the Ruhrchemie-Rhone Poulenc process for propene hydroformylation the pH of the aqueous phase is kept between 5 and 6. This seems to be an optimum in order to avoid acid- and base-catalyzed side reactions of aldehydes and degradation of TPPTS. Nevertheless, it has been observed in this [93] and in many other cases [38,94-96,104,128,131] that the [RhH(CO)(P)3] (P = water-soluble phosphine) catalysts work more actively at higher pH. This is unusual for a reaction in which (seemingly) no charged species are involved. For example, in 1-octene hydroformylation with [ RhCl(COD) 2] + TPPTS catalyst in a biphasic medium the rates increased by two- to five-fold when the pH was changed from 7 to 10 [93,96]. In the same detailed kinetic studies [93,96] it was also established that the rate of 1-octene hydroformylation was a significantly different function of reaction parameters such as catalyst concentration, CO and hydrogen pressure at pH 7 than at pH 10. 

One of the earliest use of cyclodextrins as inverse phase transfer agents was in the Wacker oxidation of higher olefins to methyl ketones [22] with [PdCU] + [CuCU] catalyst (Scheme 10.12). Already at that time it was discovered, that cyclodextrins not only transported the olefins into the aqueous phase but imposed a substrate-selectivity, too with Ckh olefins the yields decreased dramatically and 1-tetradecene was only slightly oxidized. 

A photoinduced electron relay system at solid-liquid interface is constructed also by utilizing polymer pendant Ru(bpy)2 +. The irradiation of a mixture of EDTA and water-insoluble polymer complex (Ru(PSt-bpy)(bpy) +, prepared by Eq. (15)) deposited as solid phase in methanol containing MV2+ induced MV 7 formation in the liquid phase 9). The rate of MV formation was 4 pM min-1. As shown in Fig. 14, photoinduced electron transfer occurs from EDTA in the solid to MV2+ in the liquid via Ru(bpy)2 +. The protons and Pt catalyst in the liquid phase brought about H2 evolution. One hour s irradiation of the system gave 9.32 pi H2 after standing 12 h and the turnover number of the Ru complex was 7.6 under this condition. The apparent rate constant of the electron transfer from Ru(bpy)2+ in the solid phase to MV2 + in the liquid was estimated to be higher than that of the entire solution system. The photochemical reduction and oxidation products, i.e., H2 and EDTAox were thus formed separately in different phases. Photoinduced electron relay did not occur in the system where a film of polymer pendant Ru complex separates two aqueous phases of EDTA and MV2 9) (see Fig. 15c). 

Rates for Br-I exchange reactions were 1.5-fold higher with 10 % RS, 1 % CL catalyst 37 when the amount of KI was changed from 2.4 to 8.0 mmol in 0.75 ml of water146). Rates for the same reactions with 26-34 % RS, 2 % CL catalysts 35 and 41 hardly changed as the KI concentration was increased from 6.7 M to 10.0 M. Rates with 14-17 % RS 35 and 41, and with 7 % RS 35, increased by a factors of 1.5 and 2, respectively, with that increase in the KI concentration 149). Apparently the concentration of inorganic salts in the aqueous phase affects complexation constants and/or intrinsic reactivity, especially the hydration state of the active site. The activity of lower % RS catalysts depends more on the salt concentration than does the activity of higher % RS catalysts, because the former are more lipophilic. 

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