Synergistic effect of TPPTS and TPPDS on the regioselectivity of olefin hydroformylation in two-phase catalytic system

Reactions in Micellar Systems

The notion of "green chemistry" has encouraged even synthetic organic chemists to include water as a solvent. Incredible selectivities and activities can be achieved through the addition of amphiphiles with a defined structure. The morphology of supramolecular assemblies or associates formed by surfactants vary according to the temperature and concentration. As a rule, reactions are typically conducted using simple spherical aggregates, that is, micelles in the nanometer range. The strong polarity gradient present between the hydrophilic surface and the hydrophobic core of the micelle means that both nonpolar and polar reagents can be solubilized. This solubilization results in reactants becoming more concentrated within the micelle than in the surrounding water phase and leads to an acceleration of the reaction and causes selective effects. The kinetic treatment of reactions in micellar systems can be accomplished by considering them as microheterogeneous two-phase systems.

Rhodium Complexes Non-Covalently Bound to Cyclodextrins: Novel Water-Soluble Supramolecular Catalysts for the Biphasic Hydroformylation of Higher Olefins

A new class of cationic alpha-cyclodextrins bearing 2-hydroxy-3-trimethylammoniopropyl groups has been synthesised. We investigated their efficiency as mass-transfer promoters in a biphasic hydroformylation reaction catalysed by a rhodium trisulfonated triphenylphosphine system. These cationic alpha-cyclodextrins greatly increased the reaction rate, the chemoselectivity, and, surprisingly, the linear-to-branched aldehyde ratio. We attributed this unexpected enhancement of the linear-to-branched aldehyde ratio to the in situ formation of new catalytic supramolecular species obtained by ion-exchange between the catalyst ligand and the cationic alpha-cyclodextrins.