Leaching rhodium

Supported aqueous phase (SAP) catalysts (16) employ an aqueous film of TPPTS or similar ligand, deposited on a soHd support, eg, controlled pore glass. Whereas these supported catalysts overcome some of the principal limitations experienced using heterogeneous catalysts, including rhodium leaching and rapid catalyst deactivation, SAP catalysts have not found commercial appHcation as of this writing. 

Complex 7-AI2O3/PTA/ (/< ./< )-(Mc-DuPHOS)Rh(COD) 1 (1) was prepared and tested in the hydrogenation of the prochiral substrate methyl-2-acetamidoacrylate (MAA). After full conversion, the products were separated from the catalyst and analyzed for Rh and W content and product selectivity. The catalyst was re-used three times. Analytical results show no rhodium leaching is observed. Complex 1 maintains its activity and selectivity in each successive run. The first three runs show tungsten (W) leaching but after that no more W is detectable. The leached W comes from the excess of PTA on alumina. The selectivity of both tethered and non-tethered forms gave the product in 94% ee. 

The drop in conversion at the start of the reaction is much greater than expected just on the basis of transferring from a batch to a continuous reaction. It occurs because there is also substantial leaching of rhodium (300 ppm) at the start of the reaction, either because the catalyst has not preformed properly or because there is oxygen in the system and some of the phosphine is oxidised. Rhodium leaching increases at the end of the reaction (115 ppm), presumably because phosphine is lost to the organic phase and there is insufficient to keep the catalyst as [RhH(CO) P(l-C6H4C6Fi3)3 3], but is about 20-30 ppm for most of the reaction. 

An anionic rhodium iodide carbonyl complex was supported on polyvinylpyrrolidone for the carbonylation of methanol in the presence of scC02 [98], Depending on the reaction conditions and method of extraction, less than 0.08% rhodium leaching was observed. Saturation of the support with methyl iodide was found to be vital to enhance the longevity and recyclability of the catalyst. 

An effective catalyst recycling with no loss of catalytic activity was accomplished by removing the liquid phase via the liquid sampling valve and re-charging the autoclave with a solution containing the substrate. In all cases, no rhodium leaching occurred. Remarkably, the hydrogenation activity of the 1,3-bis-... 

The same catalyst was reused for 18 batch runs, without any significant loss of activity. The level of rhodium leaching remained below the detection limit, and the isolated organic phases did not exhibit any further reactivity, which additionally verified full retention of the active species. 

Investigation of the derivatized triarylphosphine in PP2 demonstrated that this catalyst system was much more stable under the same reaction conditions compared to that derived from the phosphite. The rhodium leaching level was dramatically reduced (0.05 % in one case). Omission of toluene from this system allows development of a process which is nearing the rigorous retention that would be required for commercial application, whilst retaining a high rate and good selectivity to the linear aldehyde product. The refined system also compares well with commercial processes. 

However, the TMS-system PC/dodecane/p-xylene has still some severe limitations. Via ICP-investigations a strong rhodium leaching of 47% of the rhodium catalyst was detected. Furthermore, we observed a correlation between the amount of the mediator p-xylene and the amoimt of leaching. The more p-xylene used, the more rhodium is transferred into the non-polar do-decane phase. Therefore, catalyst recycling in these systems is impossible at the moment. 

The rhodium catalyst was recycled batch-wise four times. It was found that a short induction period occurred during the first reaction cycle. The following cycles showed a constant rate and no loss of activity was detected. A ligand-to-rhodium ratio of 5 1 led to a constant yield of 95% per cycle after 1 h. Within the four cycles a total turnover number of 1000 with a maximum turnover frequency of 234 h was achieved. The leaching of rhodium and phosphorus into the aqueous layer was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Rhodium leaching amounted to 14.2 ppm in the first run, then dropped to 3.6 ppm (second run) and reached values of 0.95 and 0.63 ppm in the third and fourth runs, respectively. 

Fell also described the hydroformylation of fatty acids with heterogenized cobalt carbonyl and rhodium carbonyl catalysts [37]. The products of the reaction with polyunsaturated fatty acids were, depending on the catalyst metal, poly- or monoformyl products. The catalyst carrier was a silicate matrix with tertiary phosphine ligands and cobalt or rhodium carbonyl precursors on the surface. The cobalt catalyst was applied at 160-180°C and gave mostly monofunctionalized fatty acid chains. With linoleic acid mixtures, the corresponding rhodium catalyst gave mono- and diformyl derivatives. Therefore, the rhodium catalyst was more feasible for polyfunctionalized oleocompounds. The reaction was completed in a batch experiment over 10 h at 100 bar and 140°C rhodium leaching was lower than 1 ppm. 

Under optimised conditions, rates corresponding to 800 mol substratemol catalyst are observed, with a selectivity in favour of the linear aldehyde = 3. The catalyst remains stable over a 40 h reaction time with less than 0.5 ppm of rhodium leaching. ... 

It must be also noted that supported ionic liquid phase (SILP) catalysis can also be successfully combined with supercritical fluids. Cole-Hamilton et al. [127] have reported recently high activity (rates up to 800 h ), stable performances (>40 h) and minimum rhodium leaching (0.5 ppm) in the hydroformylation of 1-octene using a system that involves flowing the substrate, reacting gases and products dissolved in... 

The use of triphenylphosphine as ligand led to acceptable rates in ILs, but with high rhodium leaching into the organic phase. Recourse to sulfonated phosphines such as monosulfonated triphenylphosphine retained the catalyst in the ionic liquid phase but decreased its activity significantly. This drawback was surmounted by the use of 47 (Table 1.5), which was derived from a simple cation metathesis reaction between TPPTS (37) and 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimi-dazolium chloride [bdmim][Cl] in acetonitrile. 

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