Triflic acid, silica-supported

Fluoroboric acid supported on silica (HBF4-silica) has recently been found to be a highly efficient catalyst in the protection of various functional groups. Structurally diverse alcohols, phenols, thiophenols, and anilines can be acylated under solvent-free conditions at room temperature.669 Even acid-sensitive tertiary alcohols (1-alkylcyclo-hexanols) and sterically hindered compounds, such as endo-borneol, give the acylated products in high yields. A triflic acid-silica catalyst also shows high activity in the (9-acetylation with Ac20 of alcohols and phenols.359... 

Triflic acid has also been supported on a porous silica carrier (220). The authors emphasized the importance of a strong interaction between the acid and the support to prevent leaching of the acid. In pulsed liquid-phase isobutane/ 1-butene alkylation experiments at 298 K, the catalysts produced a very high-quality alkylate, made up almost exclusively of isooctanes. With silanol groups on the silica surface or with added water, triflic acid was found to form a monohydrate that was firmly grafted to the silica surface. 

Harmer et al.29 have applied the sol-gel technique to prepare 1,1,2,2-tetrafluor-oethanesulfonic acid supported on silica, which proved to be an excellent catalyst for several processes such as alkylation and acylation of aromatics, isomerization, oligomerization, and Fries rearrangement. This material has activity similar to that of triflic acid but is much easier to handle. 

Silica-supported triflic acid catalysts were prepared by various methods (treatment of silica with triflic acid at 150°C or adsorption of the acid from solutions in trifluoroacetic acid or Freon-113) and tested in the isobutane-1-butene alkylation.161 All catalysts showed high and stable activity (near-complete conversion at room temperature in a continuous flow reactor at 22 bar) and high selectivity to form saturated C8 isomers (up to 99%) and isomeric trimethylpentanes (up to 86%). Selectivities to saturated C8 isomers, however, decreased considerable with time-on-stream (79% and 80% after 24 h). 

Harmer et al.196 used 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethanesulfonic acid in the alkylation of para-xylene with 1-dodecene. The silica-embedded catalyst prepared by the sol-gel method showed much higher activity than the neat acid (almost complete conversion in 15 min at 100°C over the sol-gel-derived material versus 10% conversion, using the same molar amounts of acid). Practically no leaching was detected and the catalyst could be recycled with a slight decrease in conversion. It is in sharp contrast with silica-supported triflic acid, which showed much lower activity due to the loss of volatile triflic acid. 

Triflic acid has also been supported on a porous silica carrier (220). The authors emphasized the importance of a strong interaction between the acid and the support to prevent leaching of the acid. In pulsed liquid-phase isobutane/... 

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