Adaptable, long-lived catalyst platform for production of fine chemicals in flow reactors

精细化学工业(制药、调味品、香水、杀虫剂等)目前依赖于选择性高、用途广泛的特殊金属催化剂的使用。然而，这些催化剂本质上是均一的，这意味着它们在批量生产过程中与反应底物一起溶解在溶液中。虽然有效，但该工艺也有一些缺点，包括成本高、毒性大、溶剂和能源使用量高。这些缺点的部分原因是需要将产品从催化剂中分离出来。产品分离往往会破坏均相催化剂，因此只能使用一次。此外，从产品中完全去除催化剂中的有毒重金属和其他成分是一个资源密集型过程。在工业上更具吸引力的是多相催化剂的使用，在这种催化剂中，催化剂被物理连接到固体载体上，然后填充在流通塔中，反应物通过该塔。催化剂很容易回收(它实际上永远不会离开色谱柱)，产生的废物更少，组成催化剂的稀有和昂贵的金属和配体可以重复使用。不幸的是，不存在将均质催化剂“异质化”用于流动反应器的有效方法，精细化学工业仍然不情愿地依赖均质催化剂。我们将使用我们实验室开发的独特方法，开发包含均质催化剂的原型流动筒，这些催化剂已经附着在固体、多孔性支撑物上。在这个项目中，方法将被修改为具有很强的适应性，因此可以将多种类型的可调催化剂固定在流动筒中的固定载体上。原型将在商业流动加氢反应器中进行寿命、活性、产品污染和选择性的评估。这些原型将被许可用于精细化工行业。

The fine chemical industry (pharmaceuticals, flavouring, fragrance, insecticides, etc) currently relies upon the use of specialized metal-based catalysts that are highly selective and versatile. However, these catalysts are homogeneous in nature, meaning that they are dissolved in the solution with the reacting substrates in a batch production process. While effective, this process has a number of disadvantages including high cost, toxicity, and high solvent and energy use. These disadvantages result, in part, by the need to separate the product from the catalyst. Product separation often destroys the homogeneous catalysts, so it can only be used once. Further, it is a resource-intensive process to completely remove the toxic heavy metals and other components of the catalyst from the product. More industrially attractive is the use of heterogeneous catalysts, in which the catalyst is physically attached to a solid support and then packed in a flow-through column through which the reactants are passed. The catalyst is easily recovered (it never actually leaves the column), less waste is generated, and the scarce and expensive metal and ligands that make up the catalysts can be reused. Unfortunately, effective ways to "heterogenize" homogeneous catalysts for use in flow reactors simply do not exist and the fine chemical industry remains unwillingly reliant on homogeneous catalysts. We will develop prototype flow cartridges containing homogeneous catalysts that have been attached to a solid, porous support using a unique methodology developed in our laboratories. During this project, the methodology will be modified to be highly adaptable, so many types of tunable catalysts can be attached to the stationary supports in flow cartridges. The prototypes will be evaluated for longevity, activity, product contamination, and selectivity in a commercial flow hydrogenation reactor. The prototypes will be licensed for use in the fine chemical industry.