Cyclodextrins are cyclic (macrocyclic) oligomers of sugar molecules. Typical cyclodextrins contain glucose monomers with six units (alpha cyclodextrin), seven units (beta-cyclodextrin) or eight units (gamma-cyclodextrin) in a ring, creating a cone shape. Since cyclodextrins are hydrophobic inside and hydrophilic outside, they can form complexes with hydrophobic compounds on the inside and possibly function as “inverse phase-transfer catalysts” to transfer them into an aqueous phase.
As shown in our book “Phase-Transfer Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications and Industrial Perspectives”, in chapters written by Charles Starks, beta-cyclodextrins and modified beta-cyclodextrins, have been used in inverse PTC applications for reduction of aryl halides and conjugated dienes, epoxidation of alkenes such as norbornene and styrene, isomerization of allyl anisole and radical polymerization of water-soluble vinyl monomers such as acrylic acid.
If your company can improve process performance, profit and R&D efficiency by choosing the right phase-transfer catalyst, now contact Marc Halpern of PTC Organics to explore a path forward to integrate highly specialized expertise in industrial PTC with your process R&D program.
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!).
