Phase transfer catalysis reaction types

Phase transfer catalysis processes (Starks and Liotta, 1978 Starks, 1987) for the synthesis of many organic materials use less, or sometimes no, organic solvent may use less toxic solvent may allow use of less hazardous raw materials (for example, aqueous HCl instead of anhydrous HCl) and may operate at milder conditions. Some types of reactions where phase transfer catalysis has been applied include ... 

Although phase-transfer catalysis has been most often used for nucleophilic substitutions, it is not confined to these reactions. Any reaction that needs an insoluble anion dissolved in an organic solvent can be accelerated by an appropriate phase transfer catalyst. We shall see some examples in later chapters. In fact, in principle, the method is not even limited to anions, and a small amount of work has been done in transferring cations, radicals, and molecules. The reverse type of phase-transfer catalysis has also been reported transport into the aqueous phase of a reactant that is soluble in organic solvents. ... 

Phase-transfer catalysis is a special type of catalysis. It is based on the addition of an ionic (sometimes non-ionic like PEG400) catalyst to a two-phase system consisting of a combination of aqueous and organic phases. The ionic species bind with the reactant in one phase, forcing transfer of this reactant to the second (reactive) phase in which the reactant is only sparingly soluble without the phase-transfer catalyst (PTC). Its concentration increases because of the transfer, which results in an increased reaction rate. Quaternary amines are effective PTCs. Specialists involved in process development should pay special attention to the problem of removal of phase-transfer catalysts from effluents and the recovery of the catalysts. Solid PTCs could diminish environmental problems. The problem of using solid supported PTCs seems not to have been successfully solved so far, due to relatively small activity and/or due to poor stability. 

Many other types of reactions than nucleophilic substitution are also amenable to phase-transfer catalysis. 

Phase transfer catalysis. As well as their use in homogeneous reactions of the type just described, polyethers (crowns and cryptands) may be used to catalyse reactions between reagents contained in two different phases (either liquid/liquid or solid/liquid). For these, the polyether is present in only catalytic amounts and the process is termed phase transfer catalysis . The efficiency of such a process depends upon a number of factors. Two important ones are the stability constant of the polyether complex being transported and the lipophilicity of the polyether catalyst used. 

In phase transfer catalysis of the solid/liquid type, the organic phase (containing dissolved organic reactant and a small amount of the crown) is mixed directly with the solid inorganic salt. Such a procedure enables the reaction to proceed under anhydrous conditions this is a distinct advantage, for example, when hydrolysis is a possible competing reaction. Because of their open structure, crown ethers are readily able to abstract cations from a crystalline solid and are often the catalysts of choice for many solid/liquid phase transfer reactions. 

Reactions performed under two-phase conditions are further complicated by the partitioning of the reactants and catalyst over the two phases. In the case of quaternary ammonium phase-transfer catalysis, the mechanistic aspects have received a great deal of attention (Brandstrom, 1977 Makosza, 1975 Starks and Owens, 1973). In contrast, the mechanism of crown ether-type phase-transfer catalysis has hardly been investigated at all, despite its... 

Before the 1990s there was little in the literature on multiphasic L-L-S and L-L-L-S systems used for chemical reactions. There is, however, a relatively large volume of work done on other types of multiphasic systems related to the present topic supported liquid-phase catalysis (SL-PC), and gas liquid phase transfer Catalysis (GL-PTC). The common denominator in both cases is the presence of an interfacial liquid layer of a hydrophilic compound between the catalyst and the bulk of the reaction. 

Phase transfer catalysis (1,2) has become in recent years a widely used, well-established synthetic technique applied with advantage to a multitude of organic transformations. In addition to a steadily increasing number of reports in the primary literature, there are several reviews (3-6), comprehensive monographs (7-10) and an ACS Audio Course (1 ) which describe the phase transfer process and which provide extensive compilations of phase transfer agents and reaction types. While the list of applications and in many cases the synthetic results are impressive, phase transfer catalysts (PTCs) suffer some of the same disadvantages as more conventional hetero-and homogeneous catalysts — separation and... 

Glycosyl halides (7a-e) were stereoselectively transformed into l,2-tra s-thio-glycoses by i) (8a-d, 8j) a two-step procedure via the pseudothiourea derivatives [9,10a] the substitution of halide by thiourea is mostly a S l-type reaction since acetylated 1-thio-a-D-mannose (8b) was obtained from acetobromoman-nose (7b) [9cj ii) (8e-i) using thiolates in protic and aprotic solvents [10], or under phase transfer catalysis conditions [11]. Another approach involved the reaction of thioacetic acid with 1,2-trans-per-O-acetylated glycoses catalyzed with zirconium chloride [12]. The 1,2-trans-peracetylated 1-thioglycoses (8e-h) were obtained in high yield. No anomerized products could be detected in these reactions (Fig. 1). 

Because the cellulose ether alkoxide is present entirely in the aqueous phase, the rate-limiting step may be the partitioning (phase transport) of the hydrophobic electrophile across the interface from the organic to aqueous phase. If the reaction rate is controlled by diffusion of the electrophile across the interface, then one would expect a correlation between water solubility of the hydrophobe and its alkylation efficiency. The fact that the actual alkylation reaction is probably occurring in the aqueous phase (or at the interface) yet the electrophile itself is principally soluble in the organic phase has important mechanistic ramifications. This type of synthetic problem, in which one reactant is water soluble and the other organic soluble, should be amenable to the techniques of phase transfer catalysis (PTC) to yield significant improvements in the alkylation efficiency. 

Reactions accomplished by enantioselective phase-transfer catalysis are summarized in Table 10.1 according to type of catalyst and synthetic transformation [9-81], Highest reported enantioselectivities (% ee) or optical purities (% op) are listed to give perspective to the overall field [82]. General aspects of phase-transfer systems, including catalysts are then discussed, followed by particular reaction classes. 

The representative reaction system applied in asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis is the biphasic system composed of an organic phase containing an acidic methylene or methine compound and an electrophile, and an aqueous or solid phase of inorganic base such as alkaline metal (Na, K, Cs) hydroxide or carbonate. The key reactive intermediate in this type of reaction is the onium carbanion species, mostly onium enolate or nitronate, which reacts with the electrophile in the organic phase to afford the product. 

Whilst simple alkylations of enolates and Michael additions have been successfully catalyzed by phase-transfer catalysts, aldol-type processes have proved more problematic. This difficulty is due largely o the reversible nature of the aldol reaction, resulting in the formation of a thermodynamically more stable aldol product rather than the kinetically favored product. However, by trapping the initial aldol product as soon as it is formed, asymmetric aldol-type reactions can be carried out under phase-transfer catalysis. This is the basis of the Darzens condensation (Scheme 8.2), in which the phase-transfer catalyst first induces the deprotonation of an a-halo... 

The aim of this book is to provide a concise and comprehensive treatment of this continuously growing field of catalysis, focusing not only on the design of the various types of chiral phase-transfer catalyst but also on the synthetic aspects of this chemistry. In addition, the aim is to promote the synthetic applications of these asymmetric phase-transfer reactions by giving solid synthetic evidence. Clearly, despite recent spectacular advances in this area, there is still plenty of room for further continuous development in asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis. 

Schomacker compared the use of nonionic microemulsions with phase transfer catalysis for several different types of organic reactions and concluded that the former was more laborious since the pseudo-ternary phase diagram of the system had to be determined and the reaction temperature needed to be carefully monitored [13,29]. The main advantage of the microemulsion route for industrial use is related to the ecotoxicity of the effluent. Whereas nonionic surfactants are considered relatively harmless, quaternary ammonium compounds exhibit considerable fish toxicity. 

Phase transfer catalysis involves typically an organic/aqueous biphasic system in the presence of a transfer agent such as a tetraalkylammonium salt which facilitates the exchange of the catalyst between the two phases, while the reactants and the products are usually retained in the organic layer. Almost all types of homogeneously catalyzed reactions can be carried out in this way.173... 

N,N-Methyltosylhydrazones. Ketones react only slowly with N,N-methyl-tosylhydrazine (1) but hydrazones of this type can be prepared by N-alkylation of tosylhydrazones with phase-transfer catalysis. The more reactive thioketones also react sluggishly with 1, but in this case, the reaction can be catalyzed by soft Lewis acids. Thus the reaction of 2 with 1 proceeds in high yield at room temperature in the presence of 1 equiv. of silver nitrate. Mercuric acetate also promotes this reaction, but the yield of 3 is only 50% because of formation also of 4 in 44% yield. 

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