Homogeneous epoxidation catalyst system

The scope of this chapter will be to focus on well-defined metal complexes that serve as homogeneous catalysts for the production of polycarbonates from epoxides and carbon dioxide. Although there are numerous such well-characterized metal complexes that catalyze this transformation, we will focus this chapter on recent contributions involving metal salicylaldimine (salen) and derivatives thereof [6, 7]. Some of the alternative catalysts systems are very active and selective for copolymer production. Most notably among these are the zinc p-diiminates reported by Coates and coworkers [8, 9]. These systems have been reviewed in detail elsewhere [10]. 

A unique titanium(IV)-silica catalyst prepared by impregnating silica with TiCLt or organotitanium compounds exhibits excellent properties with selectivities comparable to the best homogeneous molybdenum catalysts.285 The new zeolite-like catalyst titanium silicalite (TS-1) featuring isomorphous substitution of Si(IV) with Ti(IV) is a very efficient heterogeneous catalyst for selective oxidations with H2C>2.184,185 It exhibits remarkable activities and selectivities in epoxidation of simple olefins.188,304-306 Propylene, for instance, was epoxidized304 with 97% selectivity at 90% conversion at 40°C. Shape-selective epoxidation of 1- and 2-hexenes was observed with this system that failed to catalyze the transformation of cyclohexene.306 Surface peroxotitanate 13 is suggested to be the active spe-... 

The search for new environmentally-friendly epoxidation methods using 02 as a sole oxidant has attracted much interest. Although there has been some success with 02 and homogeneous catalyst systems in the liquid phase without the use of reducing reagents, there have been few reports concerning heterogeneous epoxidation of olefins [45, 46]. 

The research reviewed here reflects the intense activity of the preceding 30 years in the field of oxidation catalyst immobilization. Obviously, the literature contains many erroneous and unreliable results, particularly with respect to leaching of active metal components. Examples are the reactions with silica- or alumina-supported Mo, W, or Cr and organic peroxides as the oxidants. The majority of these reports simply deal with homogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, many concepts have been proposed in which truly heterogeneous catalysis has been obtained. Examples include the Mo-polybenzimidazole epoxidation catalyst (243), the Os-tetrasubstituted dio-late catalyst for dx-dihydroxylation (391), the heteronuclear P-W epoxidation catalysts (359, 377), and the dioxirane systems (406, 407). 

The immobilization of catalysts or catalyst precursors on solid supports is a common technique for simplifying reaction procedures and/or increasing the stability of the catalyst. The homogeneous MTO catalyst can be transformed into a heterogeneous system in a number of different ways. In a recent approach by Saladino and coworkers, poly(4-vinylpyridine) and poly(4-vinylpyridine) //-oxides were used as the catalyst carrier. The MTO-catalyst obtained from 25% cross-linked poly(4-vinylpyridine) with divinylbenzene proved to catalyze efficiently the formation of even hydrolytically sensitive epoxides in the presence of aqueous hydrogen peroxide (Scheme 11). The catalyst could be recycled up to 5 times without any significant loss of activity. 

Compounds lb and 2b were the Urst fluorinated ligands tested in Mn-catalyzed alkene epoxidation [5,6]. The biphasic Uquid system perfluorooc-tane/dichloromethane led to excellent activity and enantioselectivity (90% ee) in the epoxidation of indene with oxygen and pivalaldehyde (Scheme 1, Table 1). In addition, the fluorous solution of the catalyst was reused once and showed the same activity and selectivity. This represents a considerable improvement over the behavior in the homogeneous phase, where the used catalyst was bleached and reuse was impossible. Unfortunately, indene was the only suitable substrate for this system, which failed to epoxidize other alkenes (such as styrene or 1,2-dihydronaphthalene) with high enantioselectivity. The system was also strongly dependent on the oxidant and only 71% ee was obtained in the epoxidation of indene with mCPBA at - 50 °C. 

Stack and coworkers immobilized phenantrohne derivative 16 on micelle-templated silica SBA-15 (Scheme 8) [55,56]. The system showed more selective and efficient catalytic activity for olefin epoxidations with peracetic acid than the analogous homogeneous catalyst. 

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