International Collaboration in Chemistry: Polymer Supported Lanthanide-BINOLate-Based Catalysts

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

In this International Collaboration in Chemistry (ICC) project funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Chemical Catalysis Program of the Chemistry Division, Patrick J. Walsh and Eric J. Schelter, University of Pennsylvania, and Miquel A. Pericàs, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), will link enantioselective lanthanide-based catalysts to solid supports, and enable their facile handling and recycling. Heterobimetallic lanthanide(BINOlate) complexes will be tethered to solid supports through diamine-containing polymers that will tightly bind to their lithium ions, resulting in solid state catalysts which can be used in asymmetric reactions with equal or better performance than their parent compounds. The supported catalysts will also be investigated in batch and flow reactors. Graduate and postdoctoral researchers will participate in exchanges between the Walsh and Schelter labs (U.S.) and the Pericàs group (Spain). These students will learn new techniques that are currently unavailable in their home institutions. If successful, this work is expected to have far reaching implications in organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and industrial and medicinal synthesis. This novel approach to design may lead to new solid catalysts that are able to perform key enantioselective transformations and then be easily separated from the reaction products (recovered) and reused in multiple applications. The development of flow systems is especially attractive as it provides evidence for the value-added nature of the assembled team in achieving practical, user-ready systems. The MICINN will provide support funds for the Spanish investigators while the NSF will support the U.S. team's efforts.