Styrene heterogeneous catalysts

It is carried out in the Hquid phase at 100—130°C and catalyzed by a soluble molybdenum naphthenate catalyst, also in a series of reactors with interreactor coolers. The dehydration of a-phenylethanol to styrene takes place over an acidic catalyst at about 225°C. A commercial plant (50,51) was commissioned in Spain in 1973 by Halcon International in a joint venture with Enpetrol based on these reactions, in a process that became known as the Oxirane process, owned by Oxirane Corporation, a joint venture of ARCO and Halcon International. Oxirane Corporation merged into ARCO in 1980 and this process is now generally known as the ARCO process. It is used by ARCO at its Channelview, Texas, plant and in Japan and Korea in joint ventures with local companies. A similar process was developed by Shell (52—55) and commercialized in 1979 at its Moerdijk plant in the Netherlands. The Shell process uses a heterogeneous catalyst of titanium oxide on siHca support in the epoxidation step. Another plant by Shell is under constmction in Singapore (ca 1996). 

Dehydrogenation, Ammoxidation, and Other Heterogeneous Catalysts. Cerium has minor uses in other commercial catalysts (41) where the element s role is probably related to Ce(III)/Ce(IV) chemistry. Styrene is made from ethylbenzene by an alkah-promoted iron oxide-based catalyst. The addition of a few percent of cerium oxide improves this catalyst s activity for styrene formation presumably because of a beneficial interaction between the Fe(II)/Fe(III) and Ce(III)/Ce(IV) redox couples. The ammoxidation of propjiene to produce acrylonitrile is carried out over catalyticaHy active complex molybdates. Cerium, a component of several patented compositions (42), functions as an oxygen and electron transfer through its redox couple. 

Very few examples have been described for the non-covalent immobilization of chiral porphyrin complexes (Fig. 26). In the first case, the porphyrin-dichlororutheninm complex was encapsulated in silica, which was prepared around the complex by a sol-gel method [78], in an attempt to prevent deactivation observed in solution in the epoxidation of different alkenes with 2,6-dichloropyridine N-oxide. In fact, the heterogeneous catalyst is much more active, with TON up to 10 800 in the case of styrene compared to a maximum of 2190 in solution. Enantioselectivities were about the same imder both sets of conditions, with values aroimd 70% ee. 

Catalytic studies and kinetic investigations of rhodium nanoparticles embedded in PVP in the hydrogenation of phenylacetylene were performed by Choukroun and Chaudret [90]. Nanoparticles of rhodium were used as heterogeneous catalysts (solventless conditions) at 60 °C under a hydrogen pressure of 7 bar with a [catalyst]/[substrate] ratio of 3800. Total hydrogenation to ethylbenzene was observed after 6 h of reaction, giving rise to a TOF of 630 h 1. The kinetics of the hydrogenation was found to be zero-order with respect to the al-kyne compound, while the reduction of styrene to ethylbenzene depended on the concentration of phenylacetylene still present in solution. Additional experi-... 

In 1985, Warwel and Winkelmiiller reported a series of catalyst systems for the CM of either styrene or 4-vinylcyclohexane with unfunctionalized olefins (Scheme 9). Using heterogeneous catalyst systems of RceOy/ AI2O3, among others, the authors demonstrated that both a substrate s electronic and steric properties govern CM product selectivity. Unfortunately, as the stereoselectivities of these reactions were not reported, the effect of a secondary allylic carbon on olefin stereoselectivity was not determined. Nevertheless, the non-statistical product distribution obtained in these reactions constitutes the first example of a product selective CM reaction. 

Scheme 9 Styrene CM using ill-defined, heterogeneous catalysts.

The homogeneous catalytic olefinic substitution, like the carboalkoxylation, does not generally proceed in high yield with aromatic chlorides under the usual conditions. A heterogeneous catalyst, palladium on charcoal, has been reported to cause chlorobenzene and other aromatic chlorides to react with styrene and styrene derivatives, with sodium carbonate as a base at 100° 30, 3]). In our laboratory, we have found the reactions occur as described, but the catalyst is apparently rapidly deactivated. 

Co2 + -exchanged faujasite zeolite is a unique heterogeneous catalyst for liquid-phase epoxidation using 02 [45]. This catalyst is active only for styrene, and the conversion and yield of styrene oxide were 65 and 45%, respectively. The TON, based on Co ions, reached 12. The Co2+ ions, located in supercages, are thought to cause activation of 02 for epoxidation. 

The isospecific polymerisation of styrene was first reported by Natta et al. [1,2], They obtained isotactic polystyrene, employing for the polymerisation a heterogeneous catalyst derived from titanium tetrachloride and an alkylaluminium compound. 

To overcome the problems encountered in the homogeneous Wacker oxidation of higher alkenes several attempts have been undertaken to develop a gas-phase version of the process. The first heterogeneous catalysts were prepared by the deposition of palladium chloride and copper chloride on support materials, such as zeolite Y [2,3] or active carbon [4]. However, these catalysts all suffered from rapid deactivation. Other authors applied other redox components such as vanadium pentoxide [5,6] or p-benzoquinone [7]. The best results have been achieved with catalysts based on palladium salts deposited on a monolayer of vanadium oxide spread out over a high surface area support material, such as y-alumina [8]. Van der Heide showed that with catalysts consisting of H2PdCU deposited on a monolayer vanadium oxide supported on y-alumina, ethene as well as 1-butene and styrene... 

Palladium on activated carbon has turned out to be a highly versatile, simple heterogeneous catalyst for one-pot multistep syntheses. Recently, Djakovitch and coworkers [42] have demonstrated that low catalyst loadings of Pd on activated carbon efficiently catalyze the Heck reaction of bromo benzene and styrene giving rise to T-stilbene (1) (92%), Z-slilbcnc (1%), and 1,1-diphenylethene (7%). If the Heck products are not isolated but an atmosphere of 20 bar of hydrogen is imposed onto the reaction vessel the sequence furnishes 1,2-diphenylethane (2) in 93% yield (Scheme 1). 

Hs)4 for styrene [278], Ti(On-Bu)4/AlEtj for butadiene (125) or (7T-C4H7 1)2 or butadiene [61] molecular weight distributions are fairly narrow (Mw/M = 1—2), where the propagating species have long lifetimes and their concentrations remain reasonably constant throughout the polymerization. The soluble catalysts based on vanadium compounds likewise give relatively narrow distributions with ethylene or ethylene/ propene (M / n 2). Polymers prepared with heterogeneous catalysts... 

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