Ionic reuse

Beckmann rearrangements of several ketoximes were performed in room-temperature ionic liquids based on l,3-dialkylimida2olium or alkylpyridinium salts containing phosphorus compounds (such as PCI5) by Deng and Peng [59] (Scheme 5.1-31, BP = 1-butylpyridinium). Turnover numbers of up to 6.6 were observed, but the authors did not mention whether the ionic liquid could be reused. 

The Robinson annulation of ethyl acetoacetate and trans-chalcone proceeded smoothly to give 6-ethoxycarbonyl-3,5-diphenyl-2-cyclohexenone in 48 % yield. The product was separated from the ionic liquid by solvent extraction with toluene. In both these reactions, the ionic liquid [HMIM][PF6] was recycled and reused with no reduction in the product yield. 

Although the reactants have only limited solubility in the catalyst phase, the rates of hydrogenation in [BMIM][SbFg] are almost five times faster than for the comparable reaction in acetone. All ionic catalyst solutions tested could be reused repeatedly. The loss of rhodium through leaching into the organic phase lay below the detection limit of 0.02 %. These results are of general importance for the field of... 

Both reactions were carried out under two-phase conditions with the help of an additional organic solvent (such as iPrOH). The catalyst could be reused with the same activity and enantioselectivity after decantation of the hydrogenation products. A more recent example, again by de Souza and Dupont, has been reported. They made a detailed study of the asymmetric hydrogenation of a-acetamidocin-namic acid and the kinetic resolution of methyl ( )-3-hydroxy-2-methylenebu-tanoate with chiral Rh(I) and Ru(II) complexes in [BMIM][BF4] and [BMIM][PFg] [55]. The authors described the remarkable effects of the molecular hydrogen concentration in the ionic catalyst layer on the conversion and enantioselectivity of these reactions. The solubility of hydrogen in [BMIM][BF4] was found to be almost four times higher than in [BMIM][PFg]. 

Ley et al. reported oxidation of alcohols catalyzed by an ammonium perruthenate catalyst dissolved in [NEtJBr and [EMIM][PFg] [60]. Oxygen or N-methylmorpholine N-oxide is used as the oxidant and the authors describe easy product recovery by solvent extraction and mention the possibility of reusing the ionic catalyst solution. 

The authors describe a clear enhancement of the catalyst activity by the addition of the ionic liquid even if the reaction medium consisted mainly of CH2CI2. In the presence of the ionic liquid, 86 % conversion of 2,2-dimethylchromene was observed after 2 h. Without the ionic liquid the same conversion was obtained only after 6 h. In both cases the enantiomeric excess was as high as 96 %. Moreover, the ionic catalyst solution could be reused several times after product extraction, although the conversion dropped from 83 % to 53 % after five recycles this was explained, according to the authors, by a slow degradation process of the Mn complex. 

However, attempts to reuse the ionic catalyst solution in consecutive batches failed. While the products could readily be isolated after the reaction by extraction with SCCO2, the active nickel species deactivated rapidly within three to four batch-wise cycles. The fact that no such deactivation was observed in later experiments with the continuous flow apparatus described below (see Figure 5.4-2) clearly indicate the deactivation of the chiral Ni-catalyst being mainly related to the instability of the active species in the absence of substrate. 

The ionic liquid process has a number of advantages over traditional cationic polymerization processes such as the Cosden process, which employs a liquid-phase aluminium(III) chloride catalyst to polymerize butene feedstocks [30]. The separation and removal of the product from the ionic liquid phase as the reaction proceeds allows the polymer to be obtained simply and in a highly pure state. Indeed, the polymer contains so little of the ionic liquid that an aqueous wash step can be dispensed with. This separation also means that further reaction (e.g., isomerization) of the polymer s unsaturated ot-terminus is minimized. In addition to the ease of isolation of the desired product, the ionic liquid is not destroyed by any aqueous washing procedure and so can be reused in subsequent polymerization reactions, resulting in a reduction of operating costs. The ionic liquid technology does not require massive capital investment and is reported to be easily retrofitted to existing Cosden process plants. 

The cationic nature of the copper(I) catalyst means that it is immobilized in the ionic liquid. This permits the PMMA product to be obtained, with negligible copper contamination, by a simple extraction procedure with toluene (in which the ionic liquid is not miscible) as the solvent. The ionic liquid/catalyst solution was subsequently reused. 

Room temperature ionic liquids are air stable, non-flammable, nonexplosive, immiscible with many Diels-Alder components and adducts, do not evaporate easily and act as support for the catalyst. They are useful solvents, especially for moisture and oxygen-sensitive reactants and products. In addition they are easy to handle, can be used in a large thermal range (typically —40 °C to 200 °C) and can be recovered and reused. This last point is particularly important when ionic liquids are used for catalytic reactions. The reactions are carried out under biphasic conditions and the products can be isolated by decanting the organic layer. 

The use of Lewis acids (ZnU, BF3 Et20) in ionic liquids, tested in the cycloaddition of but-3-en-2-one with isoprene, increases both the rate and selectivity of the reaction. The ionic liquid remains catalytically active after the work-up and can be reused. 

Ionic liquids, which can be defined as salts that do not crystallize at room temperature [46], have been intensively investigated as environmentally friendly solvents because they have no vapor pressure and, in principle, can be reused more efficiently than conventional solvents. Ionic liquids have found wide application in organometallic catalysis as they facilitate the separation between the charged catalysts and the products. 

The activity and enantioselectivity of the complex 6a-Cu were shghtly lower than those observed in dichloromethane, but the catalysts were stable after two reuses. After each reaction, the products were extracted with hexane and the catalyst remained in the ionic hquid phase, ready for reuse. In the case of the complex 6b-Cu, the enantioselectivities obtained in the former reactions (entry 3 in Table 5) were significantly lower than those observed in dichloromethane ( 90% ee) under the same conditions. When the complex was prepared in situ in the ionic hquid, as opposed to dissolving the preformed complex, the enantioselectivity results improved considerably (entry 5) but decreased again after catalyst recovery. 

In all cases a transicis selectivity of around 7/3 is obtained Numbers separated by dashes indicate results in successive reuses Bromine-free ionic liquid Catalyst concentration 25 mM... 

The possibility of recycling the catalyst was also studied. In order to decrease the amount of ethyl maleate and fumarate, the addition rate of ethyl diazoacetate was reduced and the reaction temperature was kept low during the addition. Furthermore, the catalyst concentration was reduced by doubling the volume of ionic liquid. Under these conditions the catalyst was reused seven times, although both the yield and the enantioselectivity decrease from the fourth reuse on (entry 6 in Table 6). 

Another method for generating an epoxidation catalyst on a solid support is to simply absorb or non-covalendy attach the catalyst to the solid support <06MI493>. Epoxidation of olefin 6 with mCPBA and catalyst 8 provides 7 in quantitative yields and with 89% ee. The immobilization of 8 on silica gel improves the enantioselectivity of the reaction providing 7 with 95% ee. Recycling experiments with silica-8 show a decrease in both yield and the enantiomeric excess for each cycle (45% ee after 4 cycles). This is attributed to a leaching of the catalyst from the silica gel. Two other solid supports, a Mg-Al-Cl-LDH resin (LDH) and a quaternary ammonium resin (Q-resin) were also examined. It was expected that ionic attraction between 8 and the LDH or Q-resin would allow the catalyst to remain immobilized through multiple cycles better than with silica gel. Both of these resins showed improved catalytic properties upon reuse of the catalyst (92-95% ee after 4 cycles). 

It is important to note that with the phosphinocobaltocenium ligand cdpp the reaction took place almost exclusively in the ionic liquid phase (ca. 0.5% of the Rh was found in the product layer after reaction). The catalyst phase was separated from the product by decantation. Moreover, the recovered ionic catalyst solution could be reused at least once more with similar reactivity to that in the original run. 

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