Water biphasic catalysis

From all this, it becomes understandable why the use of traditional solvents (such as water or butanediol) for biphasic catalysis has only been able to fulfil this potential in a few specific examples [23], whereas this type of highly specialized liquid-liquid biphasic operation is an ideal field for the application of ionic liquids, mainly due to their exactly tunable physicochemical properties (see Chapter 3 for more details). 

In comparison with traditional biphasic catalysis using water, fluorous phases, or polar organic solvents, transition metal catalysis in ionic liquids represents a new and advanced way to combine the specific advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. In many applications, the use of a defined transition metal complex immobilized on a ionic liquid support has already shown its unique potential. Many more successful examples - mainly in fine chemical synthesis - can be expected in the future as our loiowledge of ionic liquids and their interactions with transition metal complexes increases. 

Only the biphasic method, specially of aqueous-biphasic catalysis, has provided a fundamental remedy to the problem of stress-free and economical recovery and recycle of homogeneous oxo catalysts [12]. The fact that the catalyst, which still acts homogeneously, is dissolved in water, thus in a polar solvent, and remains dissolved, enables it to be separated from the nonpolar products without problems and with minimal effort after reaction. 

Aqueous biphasic catalysis is a special case of the two-phase processes of homogeneous catalysis. Despite the academic literature s provocative question "Why water " [18a, 18b], the advantages of water as the second phase and the "liquid support" are numerous. On the one hand, the search for the necessary solubility gap is much easier with water than with various organic-phase liquids (Figure 5.2). Additionally, water has many properties which predestine it as a ideal liquid support in homogeneous catalysis (see T able 5.1)[18c,18d]. 

Substitution of the water-biphasic procedure by supported aqueous phase catalysis (SAPC, see below) [39,10,26b,64] ... 

In comparison to traditional biphasic catalysis using water, fluorous phases or polar organic solvents, transition metal catalysis in ionic liquids represents a new and advanced way of combining the specific advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. 

Larpent, C., Brisse-le-Menn, F., and Patin, H., New highly water-soluble surfactants stabilize colloidal rhodium(O) suspensions useful in biphasic catalysis, J. Mol. Catal., 65, L35-L40, 1991. 

Another solution to the problem of catalyst/product separation is the biphasic catalysis. The liquid biphasic catalysis became an attractive technology for potential commercial application of enantioselective homogeneous catalysis. The most important features of such systems are related to the fact that both reaction rate and e.s. may be influenced by the number of ionic groups in water-soluble ligand or by addition of surfactants. Descriptions of water-soluble ligands and the recent results in the rapidly progressing area of biphasic enantioselective catalysis are available in recent reviews [255,256],... 

Water is particularly suitable for use in biphasic catalysis. It readily separates from organic solvents because of its polarity, density and because of the hydrophobic effect. Water will form biphasic systems with fluorous solvents, some ionic liquids, many volatile organic solvents, and also with scCC>2 [18],... 

Horvath recognized that SAPC solved the problem posed by the solubility of lypophilic substrates in aqueous biphasic catalysis with water-soluble homogeneous catalysts. He compared biphasic aqueous-organic catalysis with SAPC, in order to clarify whether in SAPC the catalyst remained dissolved in the... 

For instance, catalysis in liquid/liquid two phases is generally referred to as biphasic catalysis and has widened the practical scope of homogeneous catalysis the catalyst is present in one liquid phase, while reactants and products are present in the other liquid phase. Thus, the catalyst can be separated by simple phase separation. Celanese is operating a 300 000 t/a plant for propylene hydroformylation using a water-soluble rhodium phosphine complex in a biphasic mode of operation at the Ruhrchemie site in Oberhausen [142],... 

Onal Y, Baerns M, Claus P (2004) Fundamentals of biphasic reactions in water. In Cornils B, Herrmann WA (eds) Aqueous biphasic catalysis. WUey, Weinheim... 

However, biphasic catalysis, such as the above-mentioned process, is hmited by the solubility of the reaction compounds in the aqueous phase. Hence, only compounds with sufficient water solubility are suitable for biphasic catalytic apphca-tion. More hydrophobic substrates caimot diffuse to the catalytic active species, which is solubilized in the aqueous phase, and the reaction cannot take place. 

The catalytic principle of micelles as depicted in Fig. 6.2, is based on the ability to solubilize hydrophobic compounds in the miceUar interior so the micelles can act as reaction vessels on a nanometer scale, as so-called nanoreactors [14, 15]. The catalytic complex is also solubihzed in the hydrophobic part of the micellar core or even bound to it Thus, the substrate (S) and the catalyst (C) are enclosed in an appropriate environment In contrast to biphasic catalysis no transport of the organic starting material to the active catalyst species is necessary and therefore no transport limitation of the reaction wiU be observed. As a consequence, the conversion of very hydrophobic substrates in pure water is feasible and aU the advantages mentioned above, which are associated with the use of water as medium, are given. Often there is an even higher reaction rate observed in miceUar catalysis than in conventional monophasic catalytic systems because of the smaller reaction volume of the miceUar reactor and the higher reactant concentration, respectively. This enhanced reactivity of encapsulated substrates is generally described as micellar catalysis [16, 17]. Due to the similarity to enzyme catalysis, micelle and enzyme catalysis have sometimes been correlated in literature [18]. 

Recovery ofthe soluble cattalysts presents the greatest difficulty in large scale appfications of homogeneous catalysis. In a way, aqueous biphasic catalysis itself provides a solution of this problem. It is not the aim of this book to discuss the various other methods of heterogenization of homogeneous catalysts. The only exception is the use of water-soluble... 

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