Supported Liquid Hydroformylation Catalysis

Tunable and sufficiently high solubility of different olefin substrates in ILs Suitable miscibility gaps between 1L and hydroformylation products 

Sufficiently high solubility of most hydroformylation-relevant Rh-complexes in ILs 

IL does not harm ligand-influenced regioselectivily IL medium is compatihle with phosphite ligands 

High IL viscosity can cause limitation of the overall reaction rate by mass transfer 

For excellent catalyst immobilization (Rh-leaching down to 10 ppb) ionic modification of the ligand is required 

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Hydroformylation of Olefins in Supported Liquid-phase Catalysis... 

Supported liquid-phase catalysis,in which the catalyst is dissolved in a small volume of solvent, adsorbed on, usually, a hydrophilic solid, seeks to resolve issues associated with substrate solubility in multi-phase catalysis and performance/catalyst leaching in supported catalysis reports on the hydroformylation of long-chain alkenes under both supported aqueous phase and supported ionic liquid-phase regimes have been reported. 

SLPC or SAPC (supported liquid [or aqueous] phase catalysis [9,10,62,64] see also Section 5.2.5) provide no improvement, probably because of the tremendous stress on the support/transition metal bond during the repeated change between tetrahedral and trigonal-bipyramidal metal carbonyls over the course of a single catalyst cycle. Only recent publications [11,21,26b,28h] report on successful realization of supported homogeneous hydroformylation catalysts, but so far there is no confirmation by practise-soriented tests -not to mention by commercial applications. 

The term Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) catalysis has recently been introduced into the literature to describe the heterogenisation of a homogeneous catalyst system by confining an ionic liquid solution of catalytically active complexes on a solid support [68], In comparison to the conventional liquid-liquid biphasic catalysis in organic-ionic liquid mixtures, the concept of SILP-catalysis offers very efficient use of the ionic liquid. Figure 7.10 exemplifies the concept for the Rh-catalysed hydroformylation. 

Liquid injection molding, for silicone rubbers, 3, 674—675 Liquid ligands, in metal vapor synthesis, 1, 229 Liquid-phase catalysis, supported, for green olefin hydroformylation, 12, 855 Lithiacarbaboranes, preparation, 3, 114 Lithiation, arene chromium tricarbonyls, 5, 236 Lithium aluminum amides, reactions, 3, 282 Lithium aluminum hydride, for alcohol reductions, 3, 279 Lithium borohydride, in hydroborations, 9, 158 Lithium gallium hydride, in reduction reactions, 9, 738 Lithium indium hydride, in carbonyl reductions, 9, 713—714... 

In a first approximation, the new methods correspond to the conventional solvent techniques of supported catalysts (cf Section 3.1.1.3), liquid biphasic catalysis (cf Section 3.1.1.1), and thermomorphic ( smart ) catalysts. One major difference relates to the number of reaction phases and the mass transfer between them. Owing to their miscibility with reaction gases, the use of an SCF will reduce the number of phases and potential mass transfer barriers in processes such as hydrogenation, carbonylations, oxidation, etc. For example, hydroformylation in a conventional liquid biphasic system is in fact a three-phase reaction (g/1/1), whereas it is a two-phase process (sc/1) if an SCF is used. The resulting elimination of mass transfer limitations can lead to increased reaction rates and selectiv-ities and can also facilitate continuous flow processes. Most importantly, however, the techniques summarized in Table 2 can provide entirely new solutions to catalyst immobilization which are not available with the established set of liquid solvents. 

Figure 2.13 Examples of three concepts of catalysis in supported ionic liquids (a) hydroformylation catalysis [121] (b) methanol carbonylation [122] (c) supported ionic liquid phase catalysis combined with SCCO2 [127].

The development of supported aqueous-phase catalysis (SAPC) opened the way to hydroformylating hydrophobic alkenes such as oleyl alcohol, octene, etc. (cf. Section 4.7 [17]). SAPC involves dissolving an aqueous-phase HRh(CO)(TPPTS)3 complex in a thin layer of water adhering to a silica surface. Such a catalyst shows a significantly high activity for hydroformylation. For classical liquid-liquid systems, the rate of hydroformylation decreases in the order 1-hexene > 1-octene > 1-decene however, with SAP catalysts, these alkenes react at virtually the same rate and the solubility of the alkene in the aqueous phase is no longer the ratedetermining factor [26]. 

Hydroformylation of olefins in supported ionic liquid-phase catalysis... 

Table 5.6-3 Evaluation of the hydroformylation reaction ofi-hexene to form n,iso-heptanal using supported ionic liquid phase catalysis (SILP), biphasic catalysis and homogeneous catalysis [88]...

The most severe dra wback in homogeneous catalysis is the separation of the catalyst from the reaction mixture. The industrial success of the aqueous two-phase hydroformylation ofpropene to n-butanal [1] in Ruhrchemie AG in 1984 represents the considerable progress in this field. However, aqueous/organic biphasic catalysis has its limitations when the water solubility of the starting materials proves too low, as in hydroformylation of higher olefins (see Chapter 1). To solve this issue, a variety of approaches have been attempted. Additions of co-solvents [2] or surfactants [3, 4] to the system or application of tenside ligands [5, 6] and amphiphilic phosphines [7, 8] are ways to increase the reaction rates. Other approaches such as fluorous biphase system (FBS see Chapter 4) [9], supported aqueous phase catalysis (SAPC see Section 2.6) [10], supercritical CO2 (cf. Chapter 6) [11] and ionic liquids (cf Chapter 5) [12] have also been introduced to deal with this problem. 

I Ls can also be immobilized by impregnation of an inorganic support. This is a direct transposition of the Supported Aqueous-Phase Catalysis (SAPC) concept to ionic liquids (see Section 2.6). Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) catalysts containing Rh-biphosphine ligands were applied to perform continuous-flow gas-phase hydroformylation of propene in [BMIMJIPFg] or [BMIMJIRSOJ (R=octyl). 

Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) Materials in Hydroformylation Catalysis... 

Figure 6.14.11 Schematic representation of a supported ionic liquid phase (SILP) catalyst material for continuous gas-phase hydroformylation catalysis.

In another interesting area in the study of hydroformylation, Davis developed the concept of supported aqueous phase (SAP) catalysis.175 A thin, aqueous film containing a water-soluble catalyst adheres to silica gel with a high surface area. The reaction occurs at the liquid-liquid interface. Through SAP catalysis, the hydroformylation of very hydrophobic alkenes, such as octene or dicyclopentadiene, is possible with the water-soluble catalyst [HRh(CO)(tppts)3]. 

Rhodium Catalysed Hydroformylation Using Supported Ionic Liquid Phase SILP) Catalysis... 

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