Rhodium hydrogenolysis

Alkali moderation of supported precious metal catalysts reduces secondary amine formation and generation of ammonia (18). Ammonia in the reaction medium inhibits Rh, but not Ru precious metal catalyst. More secondary amine results from use of more polar protic solvents, CH OH > C2H5OH > Lithium hydroxide is the most effective alkah promoter (19), reducing secondary amine formation and hydrogenolysis. The general order of catalyst procUvity toward secondary amine formation is Pt > Pd Ru > Rh (20). Rhodium s catalyst support contribution to secondary amine formation decreases ia the order carbon > alumina > barium carbonate > barium sulfate > calcium carbonate. 

The well-known Adams platinum oxide can be prepared conveniently by the procedure of Adams et al. (2). Platinum oxides prepared in this way usually contain some traces of sodium, which in certain reactions can have an adverse effect. The sodium can be removed by washing with dilute acid (53). The Nishimuri catalyst (30% Pt, 70% Rh oxides) can be prepared by the same procedure as for platinum oxide or with variations from platinum and rhodium salts (64,65,66). This catalyst has much merit. It is usually most useful when hydrogenolysis is to be avoided (67,85,86). 

Another example is the hydrogenation of the homoallylic eompound 4-methyl-3-cyclohexenyl ethyl ether to a mixture of 4-methylcyclohexyl ethyl ether and methylcyclohexane. The extent of hydrogenolysis depends on both the isomerizing and the hydrogenolyzing tendencies of the catalysts. With unsupported metals in ethanol, the percent hydrogenolysis decreased in the order palladium (62.6%), rhodium (23 6%), platinum (7.1%), iridium (3.9%), ruthenium (3.0%) (S3). 

In general, hydrogenolysis of vinylic compounds is favored by platinum and hydrogenation by ruthenium and rhodium 31,55,59,72,106). In the reduction of 4-methyl-1-cyclohexenyl ether, the order of decreasing hydrogenolysis to give methylcyclohexane was established as Pt Ir > Rh > Os Ru = Pd (52). 

Acetylenic epoxides are reduced readily to the olehnic epoxide, provided the resulting epoxide is not allylic (27). In the latter case, one might surmise that hydrogenolysis could best be avoided by use of rhodium in a neutral nonpolar solvent (81) or a Lindlar catalyst (13). Reduction of l,2-epoxydec-4-yne over Lindlar catalyst gave (Z)-l,2-epoxydec-4-ene in 95% yield (69). Hydrogenation ceased spontaneously. 

Ruthenium is excellent for hydrogenation of aliphatic carbonyl compounds (92), and it, as well as nickel, is used industrially for conversion of glucose to sorbitol (14,15,29,75,100). Nickel usually requires vigorous conditions unless large amounts of catalyst are used (11,20,27,37,60), or the catalyst is very active, such as W-6 Raney nickel (6). Copper chromite is always used at elevated temperatures and pressures and may be useful if aromatic-ring saturation is to be avoided. Rhodium has given excellent results under mild conditions when other catalysts have failed (4,5,66). It is useful in reduction of aliphatic carbonyls in molecules susceptible to hydrogenolysis. 

Platinum, palladium, and rhodium will function well under milder conditions and are especially useful when other reducible functions are present. Freifelder (23) considers rhodium-ammonia the system of choice when reducing -amino nitriles and certain )5-cyano ethers, compounds that undergo extensive hydrogenolysis under conditions necessary for base-metal catalysis. 

Anilines have been reduced successfully over a variety of supported and unsupported metals, including palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, (54), cobalt, and nickel. Base metals require high temperatures and pressures (7d), whereas noble metals can be used under much milder conditions. Currently, preferred catalysts in both laboratory or industrial practice are rhodium at lower pressures and ruthenium at higher pressures, for both display high activity and relatively little tendency toward either coupling or hydrogenolysis,... 

An excellent route to cyclohexylamines is by hydrogenation of the corresponding aniline over rhodium or ruthenium (17,18,19 2 36,63,64). Rhodium has proved especially useful in saturation of alkoxyanilines with minimal hydrogenolysis of the alkoxy function (45), The extent of hydrogenol ysis occurring in saturation of alkoxyanilines depends also on the solvent. Hydrogenolysis of p-methoxyaniline over Ru(OH)2 fell with alcohol solvent in the order methanol (35%) > ethanol (30%) > propanol (26%) > butanol (22%) > isopropanol (16%) > r-butanol (8%) (43). 

Nowadays, rhodium or ruthenium are often the preferred catalysts. Rhodium can be used under mild conditions, whereas ruthenium needs elevated pressures. If pressure is available, it might as well be used even with rhodium, for increased pressure makes more efficient use of the catalyst, as well as decreases whatever hydrogenolysis might occur at lower pressure. Rhodium 7,8,12 20,21,38,39,45,65,66,68,69,75) and ruthenium 18,26 8,52,68,69,72,74) are especially advantageous in reductions of sensitive phenols and phenyl ethers that undergo extensive hydrogenolysis over catalysts such as platinum oxide. 

If saturation occurs first, the product will be relatively stable toward further reduction but if hydrogenolysis occurs first, the resulting olefin is readily reduced. This ratio depends greatly on substrate structure, the catalyst, and environment. Hydrogenolysis is best achieved over platinum, whereas palladium (77a,82a,122bJ62a), rhodium (I09a), or ruthenium (I0a,I09a) tend to favor olefin saturation. 

Hydrazones can be reduced to the hydrazine, and, if continued, hydrogenolysis of the nitrogen-nitrogen bond ensues. Raney nickel (14,15,31,133,134, 178,185), platinum (42,52,139,155,167), and rhodium (130) have each been... 

The catalyst exerts some influence on the bonds broken in hydrogenolysis of saturated cyclopropanes (775), but in vinyl and alkylidene cyclopropanes the effect is pronounced. Platinum or palladium are used frequently. In one case, Nishimura s [124a) catalyst, rhodium-platinum oxide (7 3), worked well where platinum oxide failed (.75). An impressive example of the marked influence of catalyst is the hydrogenation of the spirooctane 42, which,... 

Asymmetric hydrogenolysis of epoxides has received relatively little attention despite the utility such processes might hold for the preparation of chiral secondary alcohol products. Chan et al. showed that epoxysuccinate disodium salt was reduced by use of a rhodium norbornadiene catalyst in methanol/water at room temperature to give the corresponding secondary alcohol in 62% ee (Scheme 7.31) [58]. Reduction with D2 afforded a labeled product consistent with direct epoxide C-O bond cleavage and no isomerization to the ketone or enol before reduction. 

In conclusion, hydrogenolysis processes and coke formation occur on large ensembles of surface platinum atoms [160], while dehydrogenation reactions would proceed on single (isolated) Pt atoms [169]. The presence of tin atoms regularly distributed on the metal surface diminishes the size of the ensemble [130,170-173], the same is observed for copper atoms on nickel surfaces [174] or tin atoms on rhodium and nickel surfaces [137,175-177], leading to site isolation and therefore to selectivity. 

In order to improve the selectivity toward the formation of 1,3-PDO, we studied the influence of metal salt additives. While the addition of calcium or copper salts exhibited a moderate influence, the presence of iron salts played a significant role on the rate and selectivity of the reaction (Figure 35.1). The metal additives reduced noticeably the activity of the rhodium catalysts suggesting that they acted as a surface poison, but they modified the selectivity of the glycerol hydrogenolysis, probably through selective diol chelation. 

In conclnsion, it was shown that the hydrogenolysis of glycerol in the presence of heterogeneous rhodium-based catalysts yielded mainly either 1,2-, or 1,3-propane diol. Many parameters influenced the activity and the selectivity of the catalysts, particnlarly the presence of metal additives and the initial pH value. 1,2-propanediol can be obtained nearly quantitatively at high pH. Further woik is currently under progress in order to optimize this reaction. 

As corroborated by deuterium labeling studies, the catalytic mechanism likely involves oxidative dimerization of acetylene to form a rhodacyclopen-tadiene [113] followed by carbonyl insertion [114,115]. Protonolytic cleavage of the resulting oxarhodacycloheptadiene by the Bronsted acid co-catalyst gives rise to a vinyl rhodium carboxylate, which upon hydrogenolysis through a six-centered transition structure and subsequent C - H reductive elimina-... 

Rhodium is good for the hydrogenation of most functional groups with a minimum of hydrogenolysis activity. 

With catalysts such as nickel and rhodium for which it has been shown that 1-2 hydrogenolysis is seriously competitive with 1-3 hydrogenolysis, there is no need to assume that ir-olefin/allyl hydrogenolysis occurs (but neither can it with certainty be excluded). This conclusion is likely to be true for other catalysts such as cobalt and iron which also favor complete hydrocarbon fragmentation to methane. 

The combined information gathered from kinetic studies,184 in situ high-pressure NMR experiments,184,185,195 and the isolation of intermediates related to catalysis, leads to a common mechanism for all the hydrogenolysis reactions of (102)-(104) and other thiophenes catalyzed by triphos- or SULPHOS-rhodium complexes in conjuction with strong Bronsted bases. This mechanism (Scheme 41) involves the usual steps of C—S insertion, hydrogenation of the C—S inserted thiophene to the corresponding thiolate, and base-assisted reductive elimination of the thiol to complete the cycle.184 185 195-198... 

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