Rhodium biphasic systems

One approach that has been successfully used to separate the catalyst from the product aldehyde is to use a biphasic system in which the rhodium catalyst is soluble in water and the product is soluble in an organic phase. This approach is used by Hoechstdlhone-Poulenc to produce more than 600,000 t/year of butyraldehyde (a lower aldehyde) (2). Unfortunately, this process caimot be used to produce higher aldehydes because the water solubihty of the higher olefins that are the feedstock is very low, which dramatically reduces the reaction rate. 

Rhodium catalysis in an aqueous-organic biphasic system was highly effective for intramolecular [2+2+2] cyclotrimerization. It has been shown that the use of a biphasic system could control the concentration of an organic hydrophobic substrate in the aqueous phase, thus increasing the reaction selectivity. The intramolecular cyclization for... 

Prochiral imines can be hydrogenated to the corresponding amines with extremely high enan-tioselectivities in H20/ethyl ethanoate biphasic systems, using Rh1 complexes of sulfonated phosphines 342 The cationic rhodium complex [Rh(NBD)(131)]+ was an active catalyst for hydrogenation of 2-ethanamido-propenoic acid in aqueous solution.343... 

Scheme 8.6. Rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation in the biphasic system PEG/scCC>2...

Water-soluble complexes constitute an important class of rhodium catalysts as they permit hydrogenation using either molecular hydrogen or transfer hydrogenation with formic acid or propan-2-ol. The advantages of these catalysts are that they combine high reactivity and selectivity with an ability to perform the reactions in a biphasic system. This allows the product to be kept separate from the catalyst and allows for an ease of work-up and cost-effective catalyst recycling. The water-soluble Rh-TPPTS catalysts can easily be prepared in situ from the reaction of [RhCl(COD)]2 with the sulfonated phosphine (Fig. 15.4) in water [17]. 

The use of water-soluble ligands was referred to previously for both ruthenium and rhodium complexes. As in the case of ruthenium complexes, the use of an aqueous biphasic system leads to a clear enhancement of selectivity towards the unsaturated alcohol [34]. Among the series of systems tested, the most convenient catalysts were obtained from mixtures of OsCl3 3H20 with TPPMS (or better still TPPTS) as they are easily prepared and provide reasonable activities and modest selectivities. As with their ruthenium and rhodium analogues, the main advantage is the ease of catalyst recycling with no loss of activity or selectivity. However, the ruthenium-based catalysts are far superior. 

Details of the first stereoselective hydrogenation in ionic liquids were published by the group of Chauvin [68], who reported the enantioselective hydrogenation of the enamide a-acetamidocinnamic acid in the biphasic system [BMIM][SbF6]/ iPrOH (ratio 3 8) catalyzed by [Rh(cod) (-)-diop ][PF6]. The reaction afforded (S)-N-acetylphenylalanine in 64% enantiomeric excess (ee) (Fig. 41.4). The product was easily and quantitatively separated and the ionic hquid could be recovered, while the loss of rhodium was less than 0.02%. 

Propylene carbonate is a good solvent of the rhodium precursor [Rh(acac) (00)2] and the phosphite ligand BIPHEPHOS and can thus be used as the catalyst phase in the investigation of the isomerizing hydroformylation of trans-4-octene to n-nonanal in a biphasic system [24]. As already mentioned, the reaction products can be extracted with the hydrocarbon dodecane. Instead of an additional extraction after the catalytic reaction, we carried out in-situ extraction experiments, where the products are separated from the catalytic propylene carbonate phase while the reaction is still in progress. Conversion of 96% and selectivity of 72% was achieved under comparably mild conditions (p(CO/H2) = 10 bar, T = 125 °C, 4 h, substrate/Rh = 200 1). 

Scheme 5 Rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of itaconic acid (16) in an inverted biphasic system SCCO2/H2O...

For the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of propylene in an aqueous biphasic system. Cents et al. have shown that the accurate knowledge of the mass transfer parameters in the gas-liquid-liquid system is necessary to predict and optimize the production rate [180]. Choudhari et al. enhanced the reaction rate by a factor of 10-50 by using promoter Ugands for the hydroformylation of 1-octene in a biphasic aqueous system [175]. 

In 1975 Kuntz has described that the complexes formed from various rhodium-containing precursors and the sulfonated phosphines, TPPDS (2) or TPPTS (3) were active catalysts of hydroformylafion of propene and 1-hexene [15,33] in aqueous/organic biphasic systems with virtually complete retention of rhodium in the aqueous phase. The development of this fundamental discovery into a large scale industrial operation, known these days as the Ruhrchemie-Rhone Poulenc (RCH-RP) process for hydroformylation of propene, demanded intensive research efforts [21,28]. Tire final result of these is characterized by the data in Table 4.2 in comparison with cobalt- or rhodium-catalyzed processes taking place in homogeneous organic phases. 

Oligomerization and polymerization of terminal alkynes may provide materials with interesting conductivity and (nonlinear) optical properties. Phenylacetylene and 4-ethynyltoluene were polymerized in water/methanol homogeneous solutions and in water/chloroform biphasic systems using [RhCl(CO)(TPPTS)2] and [IrCl(CO)(TPPTS)2] as catalysts [37], The complexes themselves were rather inefficient, however, the catalytic activity could be substantially increased by addition of MesNO in order to remove the carbonyl ligand from the coordination sphere of the metals. The polymers obtained had an average molecular mass of = 3150-16300. The rhodium catalyst worked at room temperature providing polymers with cis-transoid structure, while [IrCl(CO)(TPPTS)2] required 80 °C and led to the formation of frani -polymers. 

An ionic liquid was fully immobilized, rather than merely supported, on the surface of silica through a multiple-step synthesis as shown in Fig. 15 (97). A ligand tri(m-sulfonyl)triphenyl phosphine tris(l-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium) salt (tppti) was prepared so that the catalyst, formed from dicarbonylacetylacetonate rhodium and the ligand (P/Rh = 10), could be soluble in both [BMIMJBFq and [BMIM]PF6. The supported ionic liquid-catalyst systems showed nearly three times higher rate of reaction (rate constant = 65 min ) that a biphasic system for the hydroformylation of 1-hexene at 100°C and 1500 psi in a batch reactor, but the n/i selectivity was nearly constant the same for the two ( 2.4). Unfortunately, both the supported and the biphasic ionic liquid systems exhibited similar metal leaching behavior. 

The [2+2+2] cyclotrimerization of triynes has been reported using rhodium catalysts <2003JA12143> under biphasic conditions. Thus, the cyclization of triyne 174 proceeds rapidly in a biphasic system to produce the tricyclic compound in good yield using an in t/r -generated water-soluble rhodium catalyst (Equation 108) <2003JA7784>. 

Rhodium catalysts generated from the sulfonated phosphine 23 (Table 2) were effective in the hydrogenation of olefins in an aqueous/organic or in a homogeneous methanol system, substantially higher rates being observed in the latter system.131 For example, the TOF observed in the hydrogenation of 1-hexene in the biphasic system was 220 h 1 compared to 7860 h 1 in methanol.131... 

The inefficiency of the platinum/hydrogen reduction system and the dangers involved with the combination of molecular oxygen and molecular hydrogen led to a search for alternatives for the reduction of the manganese porphyrin. It was, for example, found that a rhodium complex in combination with formate ions could be used as a reductant and, at the same time, as a phase-transfer catalyst in a biphasic system, with the formate ions dissolved in the aqueous layer and the manganese porphyrin and the alkene substrate in the organic layer [28]. 

A major improvement in both catalytic activity and selectivity of propene hydroformylation in the organic-aqueous biphasic system was achieved by using the newly synthesized BINAS-Na ligand 10 in combination with rhodium(III) acetate (65). 

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