Tungsten oxide, olefin metathesis

Olefin metathesis is the transition-metal-catalyzed inter- or intramolecular exchange of alkylidene units of alkenes. The metathesis of propene is the most simple example in the presence of a suitable catalyst, an equilibrium mixture of ethene, 2-butene, and unreacted propene is obtained (Eq. 1). This example illustrates one of the most important features of olefin metathesis its reversibility. The metathesis of propene was the first technical process exploiting the olefin metathesis reaction. It is known as the Phillips triolefin process and was run from 1966 till 1972 for the production of 2-butene (feedstock propene) and from 1985 for the production of propene (feedstock ethene and 2-butene, which is nowadays obtained by dimerization of ethene). Typical catalysts are oxides of tungsten, molybdenum or rhenium supported on silica or alumina [ 1 ]. 

The breakdown of metal-metal bonds without changes in the oxidation state. The processes of this kind have been first discovered by Schrock et al. in the course of investigation of the mechanisms of the catalytical action of low-valent tungsten alkoxocomplexes in the reaction of olefine metathesis [349,1017] ... 

OCP (3) [Olefins Conversion Process] A process for making propylene by reacting ethylene with mixed refinery C4 streams. The catalyst is a mixture of tungsten oxide on silica (the actual metathesis... 

Some metal oxide catalysts are activated by thermal reduction with hydrogen or carbon monoxide. For example, the catalytic activity of molybdenum oxide and tungsten oxide for the metathesis reaction of olefins is very much enhanced by their slight reduction (1). The catalytic activity for butene isomerization and ethene oligomerization appears on niobium oxide by its... 

Reaction of a reduced Philipps catalyst with Fischer-type molybdenum or tungsten carbene or carbyne complexes led to very active bimetallic, heterogeneous olefin metathesis catalysts. Surface metal ions might be involved in bonding interactions with the organometallic complex, possibly leading to heterometallic species on inorganic oxides. ... 

A timeline for the development of olefin metathesis, adapted from a review by Grubbs, is shown in Figure 21.3. Olefin metathesis is more than 50 years old. " It was first conducted with ill-defined rhenium, molybdenum, and tungsten systems generated from perrhenate, aluminum oxide, - and tetraethyl lead as additive, from molybdenum oxide on p-TiO and tetramethyltin as additive, ° or from tungsten phenoxides supported on niobium oxide and silicon oxide activated with alkylaluminum reagents. The temperatures for these processes are hi, but the catalysts are relatively inexpensive and can be long lived. These are the types of catalysts that have been used for the synthesis of commodity chemicals by olefin metathesis. 

High-Oxidation State Molybdenum and Tungsten Complexes Relevant to Olefin Metathesis... 

This review will focus on isolated and characterized high-oxidation state molybdenum and tungsten alkylidene and metallacyclobutane complexes. Attention will be directed largely toward monoalkoxide pyrrolide (MAP) complexes because they have yielded the majority of new results in the last several years. MAP species have been found to be especially efficient in several Z-selective olefin metathesis reactions, such as homocoupling, cross-coupling, ethenolysis, and ROMP (see Grubbs, Handbook of Metathesis, 2nd Edition, Volume 2, Chapter 7). Most of what is presented here has appeared since a review in 2009 [4]. 

In the preparative section 3.2 devoted to metal-carbene complexes, it is shown how the a-elimination reaction from high oxidation state early-transition-metal-alkyl complexes is one of the general methods of synthesis of Schrock s Ta and Nb alkylidene complexes. The other direction, formation of an alkylidene from an alkylidyne complex, can also be a valuable route to metal alkylidenes. For instance, Schrock s arylamino-tungsten-carbynes can be isomerized to imido-tungsten-carbene by using a catalytic amount of NEts as a base. These compounds are precursors of olefin metathesis catalysts by substitution of the two Cl ligands by bulky alkoxides (dimethoxyethane then decoordinates for steric reasons), and this route was extended to Mo complexes ... 

Other related cyclic olefins, 1,3-cyclohexadiene and vinylcyclohexene, are reported to be formed as main products from butadiene over tungsten oxide catalysts [24]. Under the reaction conditions, hexatriene, resulting from the intermolecular metathesis of butadiene, underwent subsequent cyclization to 1,3-cyclohexa-diene ... 

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