Pyridine, Brpnsted acid catalysis

An IR study of SbF5-Al203 after addition of pyridine to the catalyst shows an absorption at 1460 cm-1, which is assigned to pyridine coordinated with the Lewis acid site, and shows another absorption at 1540 cm-1, which is attributed to the pyridinium ion resulting from the protonation of pyridine by the Brpnsted acid sites. When the catalyst is heated up to 300°C, the IR band of the pyridinium ion disappears, whereas the absorption for the Lewis acid is still present. The fact that the catalyst is still active for ra-butane isomerization suggests that the Lewis acid sites are the active sites for the catalysis.111... 

Based on previous studies where the imines were reduced with Hantzsch dihydropyridines in the presence of achiral Lewis [43] or Brpnsted acid catalysts, [44] joined to the capacity of phosphoric acids to activate imines (for reviews about chiral phosphoric acid catalysis, see [45-58]), the authors proposed a reasonable catalytic cycle to explain the course of the reaction (Scheme 3) [41]. A first protonation of the ketimine with the chiral Brpnsted acid catalyst would initiate the cycle. The resulting chiral iminium ion pair A would react with the Hantzsch ester lb giving an enantiomerically enriched amine product and the protonated pyridine salt B (Scheme 3). The catalyst is finally recovered and the byproduct 11 is obtained in the last step. Later, other research groups also supported this mechanism (for mechanistic studies of this reaction, see [59-61]). 

The external surface of protonic zeolites can be relevant in acid catalysis. Several data suggest that nonshape-selective catalysis can occur at these sites, like in the case of alkylaromatics conversions over H-MFI [225,226]. On the other hand, H-zeolites also catalyze reactions of molecules, which do not enter the cavities due to their bigger size. Therefore, the external surface of zeolites is certainly active in acid catalysis. Additionally, the bulk versus surface Si/Al composition of a zeolite could be different and different preparation procedures can allow to modify this ratio [226]. Corma et al. [84] reported data on the accessibility of protonic sites of different zeolites to 2,6-di-ter-butyl-pyridine (DTBP). This molecule has been considered selective for Brpnsted sites, due to its impossible interaction with Lewis sites for steric hindrance. According to these authors, however, the interpretation of the data is not straightforward, for several reasons such as the presence of different cavities and the big size of the probe itself. Surprisingly, Corma et al. found a complete accessibility of the sites of beta zeolite to DTBP. This contrasts the data of Trombetta et al. [197], who showed that protonic sites exist also on the smaller channels of beta, whose access to DTBP seems very unlikely. In a more recent publication, Farcasiu et al. [227] reported an accessibility of 90% of the protons of H-BEA to DTBP, much higher than the 36% for H-MOR and 31% for H-USY. 

---