SusChEM: Polymers as Solvents and Ligands in Sustainable Homogeneous Catalysis

在这个由化学系化学催化项目资助的项目中，德克萨斯农工大学化学系的大卫伯格布赖特教授正在探索更有效地进行均相催化反应的新方法。 将开发结合聚合物结合的贵金属催化剂和配体的溶解性和使用可回收的聚合物溶剂的联合收割机的策略，从而导致更实用和可持续的方式来进行工业中广泛使用的普通合成反应。 这项工作--Bergbreiter教授小组的本科生和研究生开发出更环保的溶剂和新方法，使反应更快、更有选择性和更可持续--将培养学生在催化和绿色化学方面的能力，为学生提供与美国国内外工业或机构的其他团体合作的机会，并可能导致更环保的方式来进行重要的催化反应。 该项目的重点是设计使用聚合物促进催化过程的新方法。 首先，聚合物将被设计成用作过渡金属和有机催化剂的溶解度控制元素，以使副反应最小化或简化催化剂/产物分离和催化剂/配体再循环。 第二，聚合物相柄将用于改变催化剂溶解度，以使反应能够更快地发生或增强催化剂在替代溶剂中的反应性。第三，将使用低分子量非粘性功能聚合物代替有毒的挥发性有机溶剂，以提供可回收的更环保的溶剂替代品。 最后，官能低聚物将与可溶性聚合物结合的催化剂一起沿着用作抗浸出剂，以使通常在反应结束时催化剂与产物的物理分离中所见的催化剂损失最小化。

In this project funded by the Chemical Catalysis program of the Chemistry Division, Professor David Bergbreiter of the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University is exploring new ways to more efficiently carry out homogeneously catalyzed reactions. Strategies that combine the solubility of polymer-bound precious metal catalysts and ligands and that use recyclable polymeric solvents will be developed leading to more practical and sustainable ways to carry out common synthetic reactions widely used in industry. This work--where undergraduate and graduate students in Professor Bergbreiter's group develop greener solvents and new ways to make reactions faster, more selective and more sustainable--will train students in catalysis and green chemistry, afford students the opportunity to collaborate with other groups in industry or at institutions here and outside the U.S., and potentially lead to more environmentally benign ways to carry out important catalytic reactions. This project focuses on designing new ways to use polymers to facilitate catalytic processes. First, polymers will be designed to serve as solubility control elements for transition metal and organocatalysts to minimize side reactions or to simplify catalyst/product separations and catalyst/ligand recycling. Second, polymer phase handles will be used to alter catalyst solubility to enable reactions to occur faster or to enhance catalyst reactivity in alternative solvents. Third, low molecular weight non-viscous functional polymers will be used in place of toxic volatile organic solvents to afford recyclable greener solvent alternatives. Finally, functional oligomers will be used as antileaching agents along with soluble polymer bound catalysts to minimize catalyst losses typically seen in physical separations of catalysts from products at the end of a reaction.