Thermomorphic catalysis

Figure 6 Representative examples of ligands used in thermomorphic catalysis.

General Procedure for Thermomorphic Catalysis with Polymer Bound SCS-Pd(ll)-Complexes 43, 44 (24)... 

The use of thermomorphic systems has recently been studied as a way of achieving catalyst separation in homogeneous catalysis. For example, a biphasic hydroformylation catalyst system was developed to take advantage of the unusual solvent characteristics of perfluorocarbons combined with typical organic solvents (4). Fluorous/organic mixtures such as perfiuoromethylcyclohexane... 

The idea to use solvent systems enabling homogeneous reaction conditions at elevated temperatures and liquid/liquid phase separation at lower— preferably room—temperature seems to be obvious. Nevertheless, it is only recently that thermomorphic solvent systems gain attention [30-33] for product separation or multiphase catalysis [34,35]. The main reasons for the delayed engagement is that an efficient choice of a useful solvent system is not easy to achieve. There is also a lack of experience with thermomorphic systems in general. Reactions are optimized to be carried out in solvents having certain distinct solubility and polarity characteristics. A thermomorphic solvent system of choice will have to fulfill these requirements and to show the thermomorphic effect in addition. 

Another approach to isolate the catalyst from the products is the application of perfluorinated catalytic systems, dissolved in fluorinated media [63], which are not non-miscible with the products and some commonly used solvents for catalysis like THE or toluene at ambient temperature. Typical fluorinated media include perfluorinated alkanes, trialkylamines and dialkylethers. These systems are able to switch their solubility properties for organic and organometallic compounds based on changes of the solvation ability of the solvent by moving to higher temperatures. This behavior is similar to the above-mentioned thermomorphic multiphasic PEG-modified systems [65-67]. 

Keywords Immobilization Thermoregulated catalysis Thermomorphic ligands Hydroformylation Polyethylene glycol modified phosphites... 

Liu et al. [18] investigated the possibility of catalyst recycling in the nonaqueous hydroformylation of 1-decene by using the thermomorphic polyether phosphite 2a described earlier under phase-transfer conditions. Catalyst recovery with the procedure of phase-separable catalysis was possible with 0.92% rhodium loss in the seventh cycle. Complete olefin conversion and aldehyde yields of 98% were reached, but linear and branched aldehydes were formed in almost equal amounts. 

First Test System Thermomorphic Lewis Base Catalysis. 71... 

In this context it is interesting to note the recent reports of fluorous catalysis without fluorous solvents [68]. The thermomorphic fluorous phosphines, P[(CH2)m(CF2)7CF3]3 (m=2 or 3) exhibit ca. 600-fold increase in n-octane solubility between -20 and 80 °C. They catalyze the addition of alcohols to methyl propiolate in a monophasic system at 65 °C and can be recovered by precipitation on cooling (Fig. 7.20) [68]. Similarly, perfluoroheptadecan-9-one catalyzed the epoxidation of olefins with hydrogen peroxide in e.g. ethyl acetate as solvent [69]. The catalyst could be recovered by cooling the reaction mixture, which resulted in its precipitation. 

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. 

Keywords Soluble polymers Thermomorphic Biphasic catalysis Latent biphasic catalysis Separation... 

Dendrimers too can be used in thermomorphic systems. In a report describing dendrimer-bound Pd(0) catalysis [163], Kaneda compared the liq-uid/liquid thermomorphic separation scheme with more established membrane and solvent precipitation procedures. Starting with commercially available third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation poly(propylene imine) dendrimers, the primary amine groups at the periphery were converted into chelating phosphines. The resulting phosphines were in turn allowed to react with Cl2Pd(PhCN)2 to form Pd(II) complexes that were reduced by hydrazine in the presence of triphenylphosphine to form the Pd(0) catalyst 126 (Eq. 63). This catalyst was successfully used in the allylic amination shown in Eq. 64. In this example, solvent precipitation, membrane filtration, and thermomorphic liq-uid/liquid separation were all used to recycle 126. The latter procedure proved to be simplest with the best recovery of active catalyst. 

A second nucleophilic catalyst supported by PtBS is the polymer-bound di-methylaminopyridine analog that was also used in latent biphasic catalysis with the poly(JV-alkylacrylamide) support 129 [131]. This example of a nucleophilic catalyst (133) was used to catalyze formation of a t-Boc derivative of 2,6-di-methylphenol (Eq. 70). In this case, the extent of recovery of the catalyst and the yields of product were directly comparable to those seen with thermomorphic systems. The isolated yield for the first five cycles of this reaction were 34.3, 60.9,82.2,94.6, and 99%. In this case we reused catalyst 133 through 20 cycles. Yields after the first few cycles were essentially quantitative (ca. 93% average for each of 20 cycles). Separation of the polymer from the aqueous ethanol phase was quantitative as judged by either visual observation or UV-visible spectroscopic analysis. 

Figure 6. Thermomorphic system where the catalysis is carried out homogeneously at 70 °C in a monophasic system but where the separation is carried out at room temperature in a biphasic system with the soluble polymer-supported catalyst (e,g, 5 or 6) exclusively dissolved in the aqueous ethanol phase at 20...

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