Water hydroformylation solvent

Table 28.3. Comparison of water-soluble solvents on biphasic hydroformylation of 1-octene.

The same catalyst precursor, generated from [(EDTA)RuCI] which is also water soluble, was used for the hydroformylation of allylic alcohol under the same reaction conditions (//). At 50 bar and 130°C, in water as solvent, 4-hydroxybutanal was produced [Eq. (5)], together with about 2% of formaldehyde. However, the reaction proceeded further to give butane-1,4-diol by hydrogenation and y-butyrolactone as well as dihydrofuran by cyclization [Eq. (6)]. The same catalytic cycle as that proposed in Scheme 3 can be considered. A kinetic investigation revealed a first-order dependence on the ruthenium complex concentration and on the allyl alcohol... 

If the reactants and reaction products have polarities which are very different from that of water, special measures have to be taken in order to be able to continue to employ a two-phase process using water as solvent. This is the case in the hydroformylation of higher olefins (> C5). The fall in the solubility in water associated with an increasing number of carbon atoms in the olefins used (and also in the resulting aldehydes) leads to a pronounced decrease in the reactivity (cf. Fig. 4). 

In a Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, the first step is coordination of the catalyst to a Lewis-basic site of the reactant. In a typical catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, the carbonyl oxygen of the dienophile coordinates to the Lewis acid. The most common solvents for these processes are inert apolar liquids such as dichloromethane or benzene. Protic solvents, and water in particular, are avoided because of their strong interactions wifti the catalyst and the reacting system. Interestingly, for other catalysed reactions such as hydroformylations the same solvents do not give problems. This paradox is a result of the difference in hardness of the reactants and the catalyst involved... 

Since then, water has emerged as a useful solvent for organometallic catalysis. In addition to the hydroformylation reactions, several other industrial processes... 

When water-miscible ionic liquids are used as solvents, and when the products are partly or totally soluble in these ionic liquids, the addition of polar solvents, such as water, in a separation step after the reaction can make the ionic liquid more hydrophilic and facilitate the separation of the products from the ionic liquid/water mixture (Table 5.3-2, case e). This concept has been developed by Union Carbide for the hydroformylation of higher alkenes catalyzed by Rh-sulfonated phosphine ligand in the N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP)/water system. Thanks to the presence of NMP, the reaction is performed in one homogeneous phase. After the reaction. 

An unusual enhancement of catalytic activity in a two-phase system has been reported by Fremy et al. (1998) for the hydroformylation of acrylic esters using Rh complex of TPTS as catalyst. Even though acrylic esters have reasonable solubility in water, rate enhancements in two-phase systems by a factor of 2 to 14 have been reported. It seems that water is not an inert solvent but also acts as a reactant or a co-ordinating solvent which can modify elementary steps of the catalytic cycle (Cornilis, 1997). 

For long chain olefins, the hydroformylation generally proceeds slowly and with low selectivity in two-phase systems due to their poor solubility in water. Monflier et al. recently reported a conversion of up to 100% and a regioselectivity of up to 95% for the Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation of dec-l-ene in water, free of organic solvent, in the presence of partially methylated 6-cyclodextrins (Eq. 3.42).173... 

Relatively little work has been devoted to the characterization of complexes in water and generally it has been assumed that for Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation similar species are formed in water as inorganic solvents, i.e., [RhH(L)2(CO)2] and [RhH(L)3(CO)] are the major species. Therefore, few references can be mentioned here which contain information about coordination complexes. In addition, a few, more recent, studies will be mentioned which do not report in situ coordination compounds. A HP NMR study of [RhH(TPPTS)3(CO)] has been reported. It was... 

NAPS can be run with a very wide variety of both polar and non-polar ligands that are enantioselective. One could consider the synthetic possibilities and solvents for the separation to select potential process/separation combinations. The mild separation conditions of NAPS are well suited to maintain enantiomeric excess. Water extraction of the hydroformylation product of methoxyvinylnaphthalene, (2-(6-methoxy)-naphthylpropanal) is not feasible. 

Horvath performed experiments using substrates with different solubilities in water and showed that, under optimal conditions, this solubility did not influence the activity [67]. These experiments clearly support the fact that the reaction takes place at the organic-water interphase. Furthermore, he performed a hydroformylation reaction in a continuous system and even under reaction conditions no leaching of rhodium complex was detected. Water obviously leaches if the SAPC is used in a continuous flow system, which in a practical application should be compensated for by using water-saturated organic solvents. 

For Rh-catalysed hydroformylation the role of the ionic liquid as an innocent solvent is by far the most important. To our knowledge, none of the published research in this area claims special chemistry. The selectivity found with the different Rh-ligand complexes corresponds in most cases to the values obtained in traditional organic solvent or water (with the surprisingly low selectivity of TPPTS ligands in ionic liquids being a remarkable exception). Overall activities were found to be very comparable if mass transfer effects between the gas phase and the two immiscible liquid phases were overcome by proper stirring. 

General Procedure for the Hydroformylation/Fischer Indole Synthesis. Synthesis of Tryptamine Derivatives in Water. Aminoolefin (1 eq), aromatic hydrazine (1 eq), Rh(acac)(CO)2 (0.3 mol %) and TPPTS (1.5 mol %) are dissolved in H2SO4 (4wt% in H2O, 2.5 wt % olefin), filled in an autoclave and pressurized with lObar H2 and 50 bar CO. After stirring for 3 days at 100 °C ammonia (30 wt% in water) is added and the mixture is extracted with EtOAc. The solvent is evaporated to give the product which purified by column chromatography (silica, CH2C12, PrOH, NEt3) if necessary. 

Water is a unique solvent because of its high polarity and ability to form a network of H-bonds. It is immiscible with many organic solvents and is therefore a suitable solvent for use in biphasic reactions in which catalysts are made preferentially soluble in the aqueous phase. Phase transfer catalysis allows the use of aqueous reagents with substrates that have low solubility in water. That water is abundant and totally non-toxic make it the perfect clean solvent, provided that solubility issues can be overcome, and it is in use as a solvent on an industrial scale for polymerization, hydroformylation, and a range of organic chemistry involving PTC. These applications are discussed further in Chapters 7-11. 

The synthesis of aldehydes via hydroformylation of alkenes is an important industrial process used to produce in the region of 6 million tonnes a year of aldehydes. These compounds are used as intermediates in the manufacture of plasticizers, soaps, detergents and pharmaceutical products [7], While the majority of aldehydes prepared from alkene hydroformylation are done so in organic solvents, some research in 1975 showed that rhodium complexes with sulfonated phosphine ligands immobilized in water were able to hydroformylate propene with virtually complete retention of rhodium in the aqueous phase [8], Since catalyst loss is a major problem in the production of bulk chemicals of this nature, the process was scaled up, culminating in the Ruhrchemie-Rhone-Poulenc process for hydroformylation of propene, initially on a 120000 tonne per year scale [9], The development of this biphasic process represents one of the major transitions since the discovery of the hydroformylation reaction. The key transitions in this field include [10] ... 

The prototype reaction was the hydroformylation of oleyl alcohol (water insoluble) with a water-soluble rhodium complex, HRh(C0)[P(m-C6H4S03Na)3]3 (Figure 6.5). Oleyl alcohol was converted to the aldehyde (yield = 97%) using 2 mol % Rh with respect to the substrate and cyclohexane as the solvent, at 50 atmospheres CO/H2, and 100°C. The SAPCs were shown to be stable upon recycling, and extensive work proved that Rh is not leached into the organic phase. Since neither oleyl alcohol nor its products are water soluble, the reaction must take place at the aqueous-organic interface where Rh must be immobilized. Also, if the metal catalyst was supported on various controlled pore glasses with... 

Cyclodextrins are often used as inverse phase transfer catalysts [11-14]. They are able to intercalate hydrophobic substances and to transport them into a polar phase like water, where the reaction takes place. To study the influence of cyclodextrins on the isomerizing hydroformylation of frans-4-octene in the biphasic solvent system propylene carbonate/dodecane, the concentration of methylated /3-cyclodextrin was varied from 0.2 up to 2.0 mol.-% relative to the substrate frans-4-octene [24]. The results are given in Table 7. 

In the quest for suitable solvent systems the [Rh(CO)2(SULPHOS)] complex (SULPHOS = 31) was found to catalyze the hydroformylation of 1-hexene in water-methanol/isooctane (1/1/1, v/v/v) yielding heptanal and 2-methylhexanol in a ratio of 2.2 (80 °C, 30 bar syngas) [83]. An important point here is in that the biphasic micture becomes homogeneous above 60 °C, but phase separation occurs again upon cooling to room temperature. This kind of solvent behaviour may lead to fast reactions at higher... 

There is very little information available on asymmetric hydroformylation in aqueous solutions or biphasic mixtures despite that asymmetric hydroformylation in organic solvents has long been studied very actively. This is even more surprising since enantioselective hydrogenation in aqueous media has been traditionally a focal point of aqueous organometallic catalysis and several water soluble phosphine ligands have been synthetized in enantiomerically pure form. 

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