Hydrogenation palladium catalysts

Alkynes can be reduced to yield alkenes and alkanes. Complete reduction of the triple bond over a palladium hydrogenation catalyst yields an alkane partial reduction by catalytic hydrogenation over a Lindlar catalyst yields a cis alkene. Reduction of (he alkyne with lithium in ammonia yields a trans alkene. 

D. Teschner, Z. Rdvay, J. Borsodi, M. Havecker, A. Knop-Gericke, R. Schlogl, D. Milroy, S. D. Jackson, D. Torres, and P. Sautet, Understanding palladium hydrogenation catalysts when the nature of the reactive molecule controls the nature of the catalyst active phase, Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, vol. 47, pp. 9274-9278, 2008. 

The uncatalyzed addition of hydrogen to an alkene although exothermic is very slow The rate of hydrogenation increases dramatically however m the presence of cer tain finely divided metal catalysts Platinum is the hydrogenation catalyst most often used although palladium nickel and rhodium are also effective Metal catalyzed addi tion of hydrogen is normally rapid at room temperature and the alkane is produced m high yield usually as the only product... 

Both objectives have been met by designing special hydrogenation catalysts The most frequently used one is the Lindlar catalyst, a palladium on calcium carbonate combi nation to which lead acetate and quinoline have been added Lead acetate and quinoline partially deactivate ( poison ) the catalyst making it a poor catalyst for alkene hydro genation while retaining its ability to catalyze the addition of H2 to the triple bond... 

The original German process used either carbonyl iron or electrolytic iron as hydrogenation catalyst (113). The fixed-bed reactor was maintained at 50—100°C and 20.26 MPa (200 atm) of hydrogen pressure, giving a product containing substantial amounts of both butynediol and butanediol. Newer, more selective processes use more active catalysts at lower pressures. In particular, supported palladium, alone (49) or with promoters (114,115), has been found useful. 

Hydrogenation Catalysts. The key to catalytic hydrogenation is the catalyst, which promotes a reaction which otherwise would occur too slowly to be useful. Catalysts for the hydrogenation of nitro compounds and nitriles are generally based on one or more of the group VIII metals. The metals most commonly used are cobalt, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and mthenium, but others, including copper (16), iron (17), and tellurium... 

Hydrogenation. Hydrogenation is one of the oldest and most widely used appHcations for supported catalysts, and much has been written in this field (55—57). Metals useflil in hydrogenation include cobalt, copper, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, mthenium, and silver, and there are numerous catalysts available for various specific appHcations. Most hydrogenation catalysts rely on extremely fine dispersions of the active metal on activated carbon, alumina, siHca-alumina, 2eoHtes, kieselguhr, or inert salts, such as barium sulfate. 

Electroless reactions must be autocatalytic. Some metals are autocatalytic, such as iron, in electroless nickel. The initial deposition site on other surfaces serves as a catalyst, usually palladium on noncatalytic metals or a palladium—tin mixture on dielectrics, which is a good hydrogenation catalyst (20,21). The catalyst is quickly covered by a monolayer of electroless metal film which as a fresh, continuously renewed clean metal surface continues to function as a dehydrogenation catalyst. Silver is a borderline material, being so weakly catalytic that only very thin films form unless the surface is repeatedly cataly2ed newly developed baths are truly autocatalytic (22). In contrast, electroless copper is relatively easy to maintain in an active state commercial film thicknesses vary from <0.25 to 35 p.m or more. 

Nitropyridazines are reduced catalytically either over platinum, Raney nickel or palladium-charcoal catalyst. When an N-oxide function is present, palladium-charcoal in neutral solution is used in order to obtain the corresponding amino N-oxide. On the other hand, when hydrogenation is carried out in aqueous or alcoholic hydrochloric acid and palladium-charcoal or Raney nickel are used for the reduction of the nitro group, deoxygenation of the N- oxide takes place simultaneously. Halonitropyridazines and their N- oxides are reduced, dehalogenated and deoxygenated to aminopyridazines or to aminopyridazine N- oxides under analogous conditions. 

Troublesome amounts of C and Q acetylenes are also produced in cracking. In the butadiene and isoprene recovery processes, the acetylenes in the feed are either hydrogenated, polymerized, or extracted and burned. Acetylene hydrogenation catalyst types include palladium on alumina, and some non-noble metals. 

Dihydrothebainone, CigHagOgN, produced by the hydrogenation of thebaine in acetic acid in presence of palladium as catalyst, has m.p. 138-43°, — 72-5° (Schopf) gives a hydriodide, m.p. 262-3° (Freund) ... 

The reaction mechanism differs from that of other catalytic hydrogenations that also are carried out in the presence of palladium as catalyst, e.g. that of olefins. Presumably an organopalladium species is formed as an intermediate, which then reacts with the hydrogen ... 

Hydrogenation of carbonyls, or incipient carbonyls such as phenols (86), in lower alcohol solvents may result in the formation of ethers. The ether arises through formation of acetals or ketals with subsequent hydrogenolysis. The reaction has been made the basis of certain ether syntheses (45,97). Reaction of alcohols with carbonyls may be promoted by trace contamination, such as iron in platinum oxide (22,53), but it is also a property of the hydrogenation catalyst itself. So strong is the tendency of palladium-hydrogen to promote acetal formation that acetals may form even in basic media (61). 

The above generalities apply particularly to palladium. Hydrogenation over platinum or rhodium are far less sensitive to the influence of steric crowding. Reduction of 1-t-butylnaphthalene over platinum, rhodium, and palladium resulted in values of /ci//c2 of 0.42, 0.71, and 0.024, respectively. Also, unlike mononuclear aromatics, palladium reduces substituted naphthalenes at substantially higher rates than does either platinum or rhodium. For example, the rate constants, k x 10 in mol sec" g catalyst", in acetic acid at 50 C and 1 atm, were (for 1,8-diisopropylnaphthalene) Pd (142), Pt(l8.4), and Rh(7.1)(25). 

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