Quaternary ammonium salts adsorb strongly onto polar solid supports such as silica, alumina and clays. This provides the opportunity to perform efficient PTC reactions and benefit from east separation of the phase-transfer catalyst from the product and recycle.
In a patent issued this month (Ichihara, J.; Yamaguchi, S.; Kameyama, A.; Suzuki, T.; Morikita, T.; (JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation & Osaka University) US Patent 9,212,188, 15-Dec-2015), tetrahydroindene was epoxidized to the diepoxide using (CetylPy)9(NH4)[H2W12O42] that is a solid catalyst supported on apatite. The epoxidizing agent was 35% H2O2 and a yield of 93% was achieved in 2 hours at 25 deg C.
If your company can benefit from choosing the optimal phase-transfer catalyst, now contact Marc Halpern to integrate PTC Organics’ highly specialized expertise in industrial phase-transfer catalysis with your commercial goals to increase profit, process performance and R&D efficiency.
About Marc Halpern
Dr. Halpern is founder and president of PTC Organics, Inc., the only company dedicated exclusively to developing low-cost high-performance green chemistry processes for the manufacture of organic chemicals using Phase Transfer Catalysis. Dr. Halpern has innovated PTC breakthroughs for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, monomers, polymers, flavors & fragrances, dyes & pigments and solvents. Dr. Halpern has provided PTC services on-site at more than 260 industrial process R&D departments in 37 countries and has helped chemical companies save > $200 million. Dr. Halpern co-authored five books including the best-selling “Phase-Transfer Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications and Industrial Perspectives” and has presented the 2-day course “Practical Phase-Transfer Catalysis” at 50 locations in the US, Europe and Asia.
Dr. Halpern founded the journal “Industrial Phase-Transfer Catalysis” and “The PTC Tip of the Month” enjoyed by 2,100 qualified subscribers, now beyond 130 issues. In 2014, Dr. Halpern is celebrating his 30th year in the chemical industry, including serving as a process chemist at Dow Chemical, a supervisor of process chemistry at ICI, Director of R&D at Sybron Chemicals and founder and president of PTC Organics Inc. (15 years) and PTC Communications Inc. (20 years). Dr. Halpern also co-founded PTC Interface Inc. in 1989 and PTC Value Recovery Inc. in 1999. His academic breakthroughs include the PTC pKa Guidelines, the q-value for quat accessibility and he has achieved industrial PTC breakthroughs for a dozen strong base reactions as well as esterifications, transesterifications, epoxidations and chloromethylations plus contributed to more than 100 other industrial PTC process development projects.
Dr. Halpern has dedicated his adult life to his family and to phase-transfer catalysis (in that order!).
