Ionic liquid as solvent and transition metal catalyst

4 Ionic liquid as solvent and transition metal catalyst 

Acidic chloroaluminate ionic liquids have already been described as both solvents and catalysts for reactions conventionally catalyzed by AICI3, such as catalytic Friedel-Crafts alkylation [35] or stoichiometric Friedel-Crafts acylation [36], in Section 5.1. In a very similar manner, Lewis-acidic transition metal complexes can form complex anions by reaction with organic halide salts. Seddon and co-workers, for example, patented a Friedel-Crafts acylation process based on an acidic chloro-ferrate ionic liquid catalyst [37]. 

Flowever, ionic liquids acting as transition metal catalysts are not necessarily based on classical Lewis acids. Dyson et al. recently reported the ionic liquid [BMIM][Co(CO)4] [38]. The system was obtained as an intense blue-green colored liquid by metathesis between [BMIM]C1 and Na[Co(CO)4]. The liquid was used as a catalyst in the debromination of 2-bromoketones to their corresponding ketones. 

In general, the incorporation of an active transition metal catalyst into the anion of an ionic liquid appears to be an attractive concept for applications in which a high catalyst concentration is needed. 

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The preparation of air- and water-stable imidazolium-based ionic liquids as solvents for transition metal catalysis have received attention for last 15 years (119). In addition, these ionic liquids show limited miscibility with most of the common organic solvents offering potential for efficient catalyst recovery by facile phase separation. Therefore, ionic liquids have been recently recognized as potential media for the immobilization of catalysts with considerable success in a wide range of laboratory and even industrial-scale reactions (119,120). 

The wide electrochemical windows of ionic liquids, in combination with their ability to serve as solvents for transition metal catalysts, opens up new possibilities for a combination of electrochemistry and transition metal catalysis. A very exciting first example has recently been published by Bedioui et al. [27]. 

The support for liquid clathrate formation under biphasic conditions in ionic liquid-aromatic systems is an important and underrecognized phenomena. As the use of ionic liquids as solvents and catalyst immobilization phases for transition metal catalyzed reactions becomes increasingly commonplace, the importance of understanding liquid clathrate formation as an activation and... 

In this context, the use of ionic liquids with halogen-free anions may become more and more popular. In 1998, Andersen et al. published a paper describing the use of some phosphonium tosylates (all with melting points >70 °C) in the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of 1-hexene [13]. More recently, in our laboratories, we found that ionic liquids with halogen-free anions and with much lower melting points could be synthesized and used as solvents in transition metal catalysis. [BMIM][n-CgHi7S04] (mp = 35 °C), for example, could be used as catalyst solvent in the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of 1-octene [14]. 

The purity of ionic liquids is a key parameter, especially when they are used as solvents for transition metal complexes (see Section 5.2). The presence of impurities arising from their mode of preparation can change their physical and chemical properties. Even trace amounts of impurities (e.g., Lewis bases, water, chloride anion) can poison the active catalyst, due to its generally low concentration in the solvent. The control of ionic liquid quality is thus of utmost importance. 

Even if the ionic liquid is not directly involved in creating the active catalytic species, a co-catalytic interaction between the ionic liquid solvent and the dissolved transition metal complex often takes place and can result in significant catalyst activation. When a catalyst complex is, for example, dissolved in a slightly acidic ionic liquid some electron-rich parts of the complex (e.g., lone pairs of electrons in the ligand) may interact with the solvent, providing increased activity to the resulting catalytic centre. Acidic ionic liquids can be considered as liquid acid supports for transition metal catalysts dissolved therein. 

Ionic liquids have been widely used as solvents for transition metal-catalyzed reactions (see Chapter 5). They can act simply as the solvent or sometimes as a co-catalyst or catalyst activator. They are often used in biphasic systems, with the catalyst retained in the ionic liquid phase and the products separated in an organic solvent phase. 

The use of ionic liquids as solvents for homogeneous transition metal catalyst was described in 1990 by Chauvin et al. and by Wilkes et al. (Wasserscheid Keim, 2000). The concept of ionic liquid received an impulse by the work of Wilke s group when they described in 1992 the synthesis of systems with significantly enhanced stability against hydrolysis (Wasserscheid Keim, 2000). 

Ionic liquids with wealdy coordinating, inert anions (such as [(CF3S02)2N] , [BFJ , or [PFg] under anhydrous conditions) and inert cations (cations that do not coordinate to the catalyst themselves, nor form species that coordinate to the catalyst under the reaction conditions used) can be looked on as innocent solvents in transition metal catalysis. In these cases, the role of the ionic liquid is solely to provide a more or less polar, more or less weakly coordinating medium for the transition metal catalyst, but which additionally offers special solubility for feedstock and products. 

Ionic liquids formed by treatment of a halide salt with a Lewis acid (such as chloro-aluminate or chlorostannate melts) generally act both as solvent and as co-catalyst in transition metal catalysis. The reason for this is that the Lewis acidity or basicity, which is always present (at least latently), results in strong interactions with the catalyst complex. In many cases, the Lewis acidity of an ionic liquid is used to convert the neutral catalyst precursor into the corresponding cationic active form. The activation of Cp2TiCl2 [26] and (ligand)2NiCl2 [27] in acidic chloroaluminate melts and the activation of (PR3)2PtCl2 in chlorostannate melts [28] are examples of this land of activation (Eqs. 5.2-1, 5.2-2, and 5.2-3). 

Ionic liquids have already been demonstrated to be effective membrane materials for gas separation when supported within a porous polymer support. However, supported ionic liquid membranes offer another versatile approach by which to perform two-phase catalysis. This technology combines some of the advantages of the ionic liquid as a catalyst solvent with the ruggedness of the ionic liquid-polymer gels. Transition metal complexes based on palladium or rhodium have been incorporated into gas-permeable polymer gels composed of [BMIM][PFg] and poly(vinyli-dene fluoride)-hexafluoropropylene copolymer and have been used to investigate the hydrogenation of propene [21]. 

Ambient-temperature ionic liquids have received much attention in both academia and industry, due to their potential as replacements for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) [1-3]. These studies have utilized the ionic liquids as direct replacements for conventional solvents and as a method to immobilize transition metal catalysts in biphasic processes. 

The previous sections show that certain ionic liquids, namely the chloroalumi-nate(III) ionic liquids, are capable of acting both as catalyst and as solvent for the polymerization of certain olefins, although in a somewhat uncontrolled manner, and that other ionic liquids, namely the non-chloroaluminate(III) ionic liquids, are capable of acting as solvents for free radical polymerization processes. In attempts to carry out polymerization reactions in a more controlled manner, several studies have used dissolved transition metal catalysts in ambient-temperature ionic liquids and have investigated the compatibility of the catalyst towards a range of polymerization systems. 

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