Lewis acid strengths, moderation

Donor strengths, taken from ref. 207b, based upon the solvent effect on the symmetric stretching frequency of the soft Lewis acid HgBr2. Gutmann s donor number taken from ref 207b, based upon AHr for the process of coordination of an isolated solvent molecule to the moderately hard SbCL molecule in dichioroethane. ° Bulk donor number calculated as described in ref 209 from the solvent effect on the adsorption spectrum of VO(acac)2. Taken from ref 58, based on the NMR chemical shift of triethylphosphine oxide in the respective pure solvent. Taken from ref 61, based on the solvatochromic shift of a pyridinium-A-phenoxide betaine dye. 

Cosolvents ana Surfactants Many nonvolatile polar substances cannot be dissolved at moderate temperatures in nonpolar fluids such as CO9. Cosolvents (also called entrainers, modifiers, moderators) such as alcohols and acetone have been added to fluids to raise the solvent strength. The addition of only 2 mol % of the complexing agent tri-/i-butyl phosphate (TBP) to CO9 increases the solubility ofnydro-quinone by a factor of 250 due to Lewis acid-base interactions. Veiy recently, surfac tants have been used to form reverse micelles, microemulsions, and polymeric latexes in SCFs including CO9. These organized molecular assemblies can dissolve hydrophilic solutes and ionic species such as amino acids and even proteins. Examples of surfactant tails which interact favorably with CO9 include fluoroethers, fluoroacrylates, fluoroalkanes, propylene oxides, and siloxanes. 

Catalytic resnlts are well correlated with the acid strength of the active species irrespective of their natnre (Lewis or Bronsted). On the other hand, there is no clear correlation between the density of the active sites and the catalytic performances. While the FS03H/Si02 catalyst is very active (yields 99.5 -100%, Table 48.2), AICI3/MCM shows only moderate yields (14.3-20.1%) to N-acylsulfonamide, even if both samples exhibit a similar density (25 x lO , Table 48.1). 

It is important to emphasize that spectroscopic evidence shows that water transforms the Lewis acid sites of sulfated zirconia into Bronsted acid sites [80]. At the same time, water promotes isomerization reactions over sulfated zirconia for a moderate extent of catalyst dehydration. Similarities were reported between the effect of rehydration on the isomerization activity of sulfated zirconia [81] and on that of other oxide catalysts [49] that are consistent with the role of surface donor sites in hydrocarbon isomerization reactions. However, when spectroscopic methods using basic probes were used to compare sulfated zirconia and zeolites in terms of the strength of their acid sites, the results were inconsistent with all catalytic data. These findings illustrate the danger of comparing the acidity of catalyst systems that differ in structure and composition, such as zeolites and sulfated zirconia in these systems the "catalytic" and the "physicochemical" scales for the strength of acid-base interaction may contain significantly different parameters. 

Transition metal-incorporated zeolites have been shown to be effident catalysts for direct conversion of methane to benzene and toluene under nonoxidative conditions [45,46]. Bao and co-workers revealed that Mo/ H-MCM-22 catalysts are desirable bifiinctional catalysts for methane dehydroaromatization reaction [47]. In terms of catalytic performances of Mo/H-MCM-22 with varied metal loading, catalyst with a Mo loading of ca. 6 wt% was found to exhibit the optimal benzene selectivity, suppressed naphthalene yield, and prolonged catalyst hfe under a moderate methane conversion. Although both Bronsted and Lewis acid sites are capable of catalysing methane conversion reaction, active sites with higher acidic strengths are anticipated to play the dominant role. 

Dismutation has to be catalysed by a Lewis acid of at least moderate strength. The very acidic HS-AIF3 support and even the moderately acidic HS-MgF2 support are not suited to boost the hydrodehalogenation. The high dismutation over these metal fluorides compared to that of HS-CaF2 can be seen from Figure 3.18. 

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