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

精细化学工业（制药、调味剂、香料、杀虫剂等）目前依赖于使用具有高度选择性和通用性的专用金属基催化剂。 然而，这些催化剂本质上是均相的，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，但该方法具有许多缺点，包括高成本、毒性和高溶剂和能量使用。 这些缺点部分地是由于需要将产物与催化剂分离。 产品分离往往会破坏均相催化剂，因此只能使用一次。 此外，从产物中完全除去催化剂的有毒重金属和其它组分是一种资源密集型方法。 在工业上更有吸引力的是使用多相催化剂，其中催化剂被物理地附着到固体载体上，然后填充在反应物通过的流通柱中。 催化剂很容易回收（它实际上从来没有离开塔），产生的废物较少，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，根本不存在使用于流动反应器的均相催化剂“非均相化”的有效方法，并且精细化学工业仍然不情愿地依赖于均相催化剂。 我们将使用我们实验室开发的独特方法，开发包含均相催化剂的原型流动盒，这些催化剂已附着在固体多孔载体上。 在该项目中，该方法将被修改为具有高度适应性，因此许多类型的可调催化剂可以连接到流动盒中的固定支架上。 将在商业流动氢化反应器中评价原型的寿命、活性、产物污染和选择性。 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.